For Entertainment Purposes Only
by HorcruxFinder
Summary: Rose tried to convince herself that what she was doing with Scorpius Malfoy was for entertainment purposes only. But then her feelings began to change.
1. Escapades of Summer

**.*.For Entertainment Purposes Only.*.**

**by HorcruxFinder**

**.*.**

_Escapades of Summer_

The atmosphere surrounding the Potters' house was alive with excitement—the kind of excitement that was only present on the last night of summer, the last night of freedom. As Rose Weasley sat on a rickety lawn chair, she couldn't help but feel it. Although the summer air was burning her skin and the humidity was making it difficult to take a deep breath, she felt alive and full of energy. In less than twelve hours, she would be on the Hogwarts Express laughing with her friends and making plans for their final year at school. To say that she had been looking forward to this for a long time would be an understatement.

The sound of someone sitting down in the chair next to her awoke Rose from her brief fit of nostalgia. She didn't even have to look up to know that it was Albus.

"Where've you been?" she asked, looking over at him curiously. Albus and her Uncle Harry had been out of the house when the Weasley family arrived nearly an hour before. Rather than answer her, Albus was looking longingly at the blue water of the Potters' swimming pool. He was already in a pair of swimming trunks and looked ready to join Hugo, James, and Lily in the water.

"Out," he replied with a cryptic smile that covered his whole face.

"Out where?" Albus's smile only grew wider. "Albus Severus Potter, you are hiding something from me," she said, but she didn't feel like pressing the matter. Albus would tell her eventually—he always did. Instead, she watched as James and Hugo slowly waded through the water of the pool, heading towards Lily who was lounging unsuspectingly on a float. Albus and Rose both laughed as Lily was tipped into the water and resurfaced yelling all sorts of profanities that had James and Hugo begging her to be quiet before their parents heard.

"Let's just say that my dad has decided to bestow upon me the most amazing present ever, since I'm Head Boy and all," Albus finally said, turning back to Rose with a smirk.

"Go ahead and rub it in," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "And you can't tell me what this amazing present is, I assume?"

"I will tomorrow," Albus shrugged.

"Why not tonight?"

"Because tomorrow you won't be able to ruin it."

"Are you insinuating that I ruin things?" Rose asked testily.

"I promised my dad I wouldn't tell anyone," he said, standing up and pulling off his T-shirt. "But," he added, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "if you just so happened to overhear us making plans after dinner, there's nothing I can do about that."

"I love you, Albus Potter," Rose cooed.

"Yeah, you're going to owe me too," he grinned and before she could ask any more questions he took off running and dived into the pool, splashing an already livid Lily with water.

Dinner was a fun affair that night, as it always was when the Weasleys and the Potters got together. They were as close as any two families could be and Rose loved the bind that she was able to share with her Aunt, Uncle, and cousins. They were honestly just like an extension of her immediate family.

The conversation seemed to center around the Potter boys, but Rose didn't mind. James was starting Auror training the next day and Albus was heading off to Hogwarts as the new Head Boy, a title that Rose felt he fully deserved. Albus was the smartest, most dedicated person she knew. Professor McGonagall had made the right decision.

After a few hours, dinner was cleared away and the kids jumped back into the pool. Rose, however, kept one eye on Albus the entire time and when he slipped back into the house, she stealthily followed him. She had to sneak past her mum and Aunt Ginny in the living room, but it didn't take her long to hear male voices coming from the kitchen.

"You better not make me regret this," Harry was saying, although Rose could almost see the smile behind his words. "These tickets cost me an arm and a leg! The Weird Sisters farewell concert…" he mused. "It seems like they've been around forever, doesn't it, Ron?"

"Played at our Yule Ball in the fourth year, they did," my dad agreed.

"You won't regret this, Dad," Albus assured him.

"Not so fast," Harry continued. "Your mum would kill me if she knew I was giving you these, so if she catches you sneaking out tonight—I had nothing to do with it. Nothing. Do you understand me?"

"She's not going to find out," Albus scoffed. "Trust me." Harry and Ron both chuckled.

"I can't believe you're doing this behind Ginny's back," Ron said. "Have you forgotten how good she is at Bat-Bogey Hexes?"

"She's not going to find out," Harry repeated, but it sounded to Rose as if he were trying to convince himself more than Ron. "Plus, Al's seventeen—he could go even without my permission. And I'm not completely sure Ginny wouldn't approve. I just think it's better not to test her."

"So that's what you're saying to convince yourself this isn't lying to your wife? Ginny would never let any of her kids step foot into a Weird Sisters concert. And especially not the night before they leave for Hogwarts! I would never dream of letting Rosie go! Hugo, maybe—but only if he was of age!"

Unable to restrain herself, Rose opened the Kitchen door and barged in. She was going to go to that concert with Albus, if only because her father said she couldn't.

"Oh, Rosie! Hello," her father greeted sheepishly. Rose could tell by his paling face that he was hoping she hadn't heard what had been said.

"I want to go," she said without further ado. Albus smirked at her from across the room.

"Rose, I only bought two tickets," Harry said after several seconds of silence.

"One for me and one for Al!" Rose said happily.

"One for me and one for Scorpius," Albus corrected.

"You're taking _him _instead of me?" Rose cried. "What kind of friend are you?"

"See, Rosie, that Malfoy boy's going," Ron interrupted. "You don't want to be around that!"

"I. Want. To. Go."

Harry glanced down at his watch. "I could maybe go talk to Corner about another ticket…"

Ron looked over at him as if he'd grown two heads. "Um…I think it's actually a bit too late for that. You'll just have to go some other time, dear."

"Dad, you just said you'd let Hugo go if he was of age. Why not me?"

Ron just stared back at her and Rose could see that he was wearing the look that he so often gave her mother—the look that said he did not want to agree to what she was saying, but because he didn't want to make her mad he was going to do it anyway.

"I'll tell Aunt Ginny if you don't let me go," she added for good measure.

"I think she should go to the concert," Harry said worriedly, looking over at Ron in desperation.

"I think she should too," Albus agreed, glancing at both of their parents.

"Fine," Ron groaned. "But only if Albus stays by her side the whole time. Every second, Albus—do you hear me?"

"I'm not five," Rose groaned.

"And keep her away from that Malfoy boy—I don't like him."

"Of course, Uncle Ron," Albus agreed.

"And Rosie? Please don't tell your mother."

Albus and Rose left the room together a few minutes later. "I can't believe we're going to see the Weird Sisters!" Rose said.

"Keep your voice down," Albus hissed, but he was looking just as happy as Rose felt. "We'll meet outside of Uncle George's shop at nine. I'm not waiting longer than that so if your mum catches you, you're just out of luck."

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'll be there. But can't you bring someone besides Malfoy?"

"He's my best mate, Rose. If you can't stand being with him, you don't have to come."

Knowing that she would never agree to those terms, he walked off arrogantly. But even a night with Malfoy couldn't dampen her spirits now.

It was not difficult to sneak out of her house that night. Although it wasn't something that Rose was proud to admit, this wasn't the first time she had left her room after hours. How could it be when Albus was her best friend? He was easily one of the most popular boys in Gryffindor house—if not the whole school. There was always a party going on and he was always invited. People just accepted the fact that Rose usually tagged along upon Albus's invitation.

Rose arrived at George's joke shop before Albus did, which wasn't all that surprising. In fact, it wouldn't come as a total shock if Albus had decided to take a nap and didn't wake up until after the concert was over. Which would be completely fine with her except for the fact that he was the one with the tickets.

Since she had nothing better to do, Rose spent her time glancing from shop to shop. Diagon Alley was still pretty busy even this late at night, although that probably had something to do with the concert that was starting in half an hour. Just as Rose was about to Apparate to the Potters to find Albus, he appeared next to her with a loud crack.

"You're late," she said smugly.

"You're annoying," he countered. "Come on, we're meeting Scorpius at the front door." Rose groaned. Albus rolled his eyes. "Play nice, Rosie."

"He's just such a cad!" Rose insisted as they started walking towards the concert hall.

"He is not," Albus replied calmly.

"He's shagged half of the girls in school, Al. If that doesn't make someone a cad—"

"It's not his fault girls throw themselves at him. He can't help it anymore than I can."

"Egotistical much?"

"Just tonight," he smirked.

"Who are you shagging now days anyway?"

"No one."

"No one? Or no one important?"

"No one at all. I'm taking a break."

"Oh, I see," Rose said, after taking a minute to decipher his hidden motive. "You're waiting to see who the Head Girl is. I mean, it's the perfect opportunity—you _will_ be sharing a dormitory with her after all."

"I know who the Head Girl is, actually."

"Who?"

"I'm not telling you," Albus smirked. "That's what you get for acting as though I can't keep it in my pants. Now can we stop talking about this? It's making me uncomfortable."

The closer they got to the concert hall, the more and more people they seemed to come into contact with. Thankfully, once they got to the front door it didn't take them long to spot Scorpius Malfoy's platinum blonde hair. Without willing herself to do so, Rose took in his dark jeans and his white polo eagerly. Although she found the boy to be a bit of a prick, she couldn't stop herself from admiring his finer features. It was one of the cruel jokes of the universe to make someone so beautiful be such a jerk.

Albus immediately walked over to join his friend in the line and Rose followed him.

"Can you believe my dad got tickets?" Albus said once they got near enough. Scorpius turned around with a wide grin on his face.

"I half expected this to be a joke and you would leave me here ticket-less. My dad's been trying to get tickets for weeks and then Harry just walks in and they shove them in his face. How unfair!"

"Well he did save the whole wizarding world a few years back," Rose said before she could stop herself. "Maybe you've heard about it?"

"Rose!" Albus said threateningly.

"You brought your cousin," Scorpius noted. "How lovely."

"You're my two best mates—now get along for one night or shut up." He handed them each a ticket as he said this and Rose stared at hers in disbelief.

"We're on the fifth row!" Scorpius did a double take at her words and looked down at his own ticket again.

Albus shrugged. "I guess so." The ticket vender took their stubs and pointed them into the building. Before taking their seats, Scorpius and Albus wanted to purchase a firewhiskey for each of them so Rose bought one too. The last thing she needed was to get into an argument with Malfoy about how she was a prude; that was one of his favorite topics of discussion.

They took their seats just as the Weird Sisters took the stage. The applause from all sides was deafening. The music was as phenomenal as on the wireless and Rose couldn't help but sing along. Albus was laughing at her enthusiasm from beside her.

So was the guy on her left whom she had never met before.

She glanced over at him and he smiled down at her. She smiled back. He looked several years older and was quite attractive. Rose, however, was not the type of person that had any desire to hook up with someone at a concert. And this guy didn't exactly look like good news.

"Hello," he said, having to scream over the music.

"Hi," Rose responded, but immediately turned her attention back to the band.

"What's your name?" the guy asked. Why couldn't he just leave her alone?

"I'm sorry—I can't hear you," she tried. Noticing that something was off, Albus looked over and seemed to sense what was going on. Without a word to Rose, he pushed past her so that they switched seats. Smirking to herself, Rose looked over at Scorpius to see if he'd noticed the exchange. He was looking down at her curiously.

"Some guy was trying to flirt with me," she explained.

"Why?" Scorpius joked. Rose simply rolled her eyes. He smiled at her coyly before turning back to the band.

The overall concert experience was far better than Rose had hoped for. She had been particularly worried about having to spend an entire night with Scorpius but it hadn't been bad. It wasn't that Rose and Scorpius disliked each other necessarily; it was more that they were constantly in competition with each other. They fought for the top spot in every class and both of their stubborn attitudes created a constant battle of wits. They tolerated each other for Albus, but if it wasn't for him the two would probably openly hate each other. As it was, however, they simply suffered in silence unless Albus happened to not be present.

Scorpius was distracted half way through the show by a group of French witches on his right side. As he continually fought off their advances, Rose became slightly embarrassed to be a female. Surely this wasn't usual behavior? Did girls actually find it acceptable to throw themselves at guys like Malfoy? Sure he was decent looking, but that was hardly an excuse.

Rose shook her head to clear away all trace of thoughts about Malfoy and tried to focus on the Weird Sisters who were now playing her favorite song of all time. She sang along happily.

"Switch places with me," Scorpius suddenly demanded, whispering fiercely in her ear.

Annoyed both by his interruption and how he seemed to find it acceptable to lean so close to her, she angrily retorted with a resounding "No!"

Scorpius glared at her. "If these birds were hot it would be a completely different matter—but they're not, and I'm not in the mood."

"I never thought I would hear Scorpius Malfoy say that he's 'not in the mood.'"

"Really?" he countered. "Because the very thought of _you_ puts me 'not in the mood,' so if anyone would be likely to hear me say that, it would be you."

"Has anyone ever told you how charming you are?" she asked with the biting sarcasm that she always reserved especially for Malfoy.

"Plenty of people," he smiled in response.

"Shut up," Rose finally said, running out of comebacks. Scorpius smirked at her, but otherwise accepted his victory in silence.

A few minutes later, Scorpius assaulted her attention once more. She felt his hand brush hers gently. Thinking it was an accident, she let the situation slide with only a glare in his direction. He smirked at her but his hand did not move and instead began to draw patterns lightly on her wrist and the back of her hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked, turning to him angrily.

He shrugged casually but removed his hand nevertheless. "I'm in the mood now," he explained. Rose rolled her eyes and heard Scorpius chuckle. Within a few minutes, the concert had ended.

The theater had seemed crowded enough before people began emptying it chaotically. The claustrophobia mixed in with the sudden lack of pounding music and the strong smell of alcohol left Rose feeling very disoriented. They were almost out of the building before she remembered that she wanted to buy a souvenir.

"Albus, I want a T-shirt. Come with me—the vender's right over there."

Rolling his eyes, Albus glanced at his watch. "I don't have time, Rose. Dad wants me home by midnight."

"You snuck out of the house and still managed to get a curfew?" Scorpius scoffed.

"You're just going to have to live without a T-shirt, Rose," Albus said calmly.

"I'll just go by myself then!" she countered.

"No you won't!" Albus exclaimed, stopping her. "I promised your dad I wouldn't let you out of my sight."

"Aw, how sweet," Scorpius cooed at me.

"Shut up!" she snapped at him. "I'm a big girl, Al."

"Why don't _I_ go with Rose and you can go home?" Scorpius offered, surprising the cousins.

"Are you serious?" they asked together.

"Why not? I've got nothing better to do."

"Are you sure?" Albus clarified. "Because I'd rather deal with my dad for being late, than Rose's dad after she's been raped and murdered."

"No one's going to get raped and murdered," Scorpius promised, "Just go."

"I'll see you two tomorrow," Albus sighed, Disapparating on the spot. Scorpius and Rose stared at each other awkwardly for several seconds.

"So, where's that vender?" he finally asked.

"Oh, um…this way." It didn't take them long to find the T-shirt stand, but the line was ridiculously long. They took a spot at the back of it and waited as Scorpius complained the whole time about a lack of people to bribe for a better spot in line. Rose wanted more than anything to tell him that bribing people was only an immature way to flaunt wealth and blood status but she knew that that would only make him angrier and more impatient.

When it was finally Rose's turn in line, she picked out the shirt that she wanted but before she could grab the money out of her pocket, Scorpius had laid the necessary galleons on the counter.

"Girls aren't supposed to pay," Scorpius said in response to her incredulous face as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. He took the shirt and they stepped out of line.

"Excuse me?" she asked, taking the shirt from his proffered hand as they made their way out of the building.

"Girls—like you, although technically that is debatable—aren't supposed to pay for things when they're with rich, charming men like me. Didn't your mother ever teach you etiquette?"

"She did. And I'm pretty sure that rule is null and void when you're not on a date."

"If you don't want the shirt, just give it to me. I'm sure I can find some girl at Hogwarts who will shag me in exchange for it."

"How chivalrous," Rose said, although she couldn't help but laugh.

"You're laughing because you know it's true," Scorpius smiled.

"I'm laughing because there are very few girls at Hogwarts that you would actually have to bribe in order for them to sleep with you."

"And what about you?" he asked as they walked out of the building. "Which category do you fall into?"

Rose looked up at him and met his eyes. He gave her one of his charcteristic smirks. "Scorpius Malfoy, I promise you right now that you will never find me in your bed."

"Weasley, I know that you're inexperienced but I feel it's my duty to inform you that an actual bed is highly unnecessary," he said patronizingly. "A blanket at the top of the astronomy tower will suffice, as will the bleachers of the Quidditch pitch."

Rose rolled her eyes. She didn't even have to ask to know that he had gathered that information from experience. They were now outside of the theater, but neither of them seemed to want to leave just yet. Nevertheless, the silence continued on and Rose felt too awkward to not say anything.

"I guess I should probably get going," she mused.

"Yeah I probably should too," Scorpius agreed. Rather than make a move to leave, however, he stayed right where he was, staring into Rose's eyes. "Or," he continued a few seconds later, "We could maybe…walk around. It's a little early for me to go home."

"Whatever," Rose shrugged. They turned down a side street and walked in silence for several minutes. Rose was feeling more than just a little bit awkward when Scorpius finally spoke.

"You and Albus seem really close."

"We are. He's my best friend—I've known him forever. He's like my older brother."

Scorpius smirked at her choice of words. "Which is exactly why _you_ are off limits."

"Off limits?" Rose laughed. "Are you suggesting that if I wasn't related to Albus Potter, you would be making a move on me right now?"

"Well I'm trying awfully hard to make a move on you right now even though you _are_ related to Albus Potter."

"Surely not!" Rose joked. "I thought you were much smarter than that, Malfoy."

"I've had a bit too much to drink," he shrugged. "And I haven't met my quota of girls for the day."

"It's after midnight," Rose noted, glancing down at her watch.

"Well I guess I'll just have to overcompensate now," he said without missing a beat. Rose's eyes were already mid-roll when Scorpius's lips met hers.

Her first instinct was to pull away but before she could, she realized that his lips felt quite good against hers and she decided that she wanted them to stay there for just a while longer. To her surprise, she kissed him back. He smiled against her lips, as his hands came to rest on each side of her body. She laced her hands through his hair and pulled him as close as she possibly could, deepening the kiss.

Every nerve ending in Rose's body was on fire and all of her senses were filled with Scorpius. She could feel him, taste him, smell him. And she didn't completely hate it. Never once had Rose kissed someone just because she wanted to, without any attachments. Malfoy wasn't her boyfriend—hell, he wasn't even her friend. He was just a guy that she had found herself surprisingly attracted to after a few drinks.

Scorpius held her tightly against his body, which Rose was incredibly thankful for because she was starting to feel dizzy. He showed no signs of stopping anytime soon and Rose was perfectly fine with that. In fact, she felt as if she could continue like this all night. There was just something completely liberating about the thought that she was going to regret this in the morning.

When Scorpius finally pulled away, it was out of the need for air. Their gazes locked and Rose could read his emotions in his eyes—emotions that she was sure were reflected in her own: a lust stronger than any she had ever felt and a deep confusion that such passion could be aroused by the person standing in front of her.

"It's…uh…late," Malfoy finally said, after they had stood there for several minutes.

"It is late," Rose agreed, amazing even herself when her voice sounded normal.

"And I haven't packed for Hogwarts yet," Scorpius shrugged.

"Then you should probably go do that," Rose agreed.

"I probably should. Night, Weasley."

"Night, Malfoy." And without another word, the two Disapparated to their separate worlds, both knowing that in only a few hours they would be seeing each other again and neither knowing exactly what that kiss would mean come morning.

**.*..:.:.:.:.:.*.**

_A/N: I know this chapter wasn't set at Hogwarts, but everything else will be. It's been a while since I've posted a long chapter story, but I have high hopes for this one. Reviews are always appreciated and the more I get, the faster I'll update :) Please let me know what you think about the first chapter!_

_SarahBeth._


	2. Unexpected Complications

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Unexpected Complications_

When the Weasley family arrived at Platform nine and three-quarters the next morning, it was already bustling with frantic parents and excited children. Rose barely took any notice of this chaos, however, because her heart was racing wildly with nervous anticipation. This was it—the beginning of her seventh year at Hogwarts. Although the thought of being through with school was intriguing, Rose wasn't quite ready to say goodbye just yet.

"I think I see Lily over there," Hugo said, standing on his tip-toes to see above the throng of people. "Yeah, that's her." Without even waiting for his parents to come through the barrier themselves, Hugo took off to say goodbye to his aunt and uncle. Ron and Hermione arrived a second later.

"Your brother's already disappeared then?" Hermione noted as they began to make their way towards the Hogwarts Express.

"He's with Uncle Harry somewhere," Rose said, straining her neck to see through the crowd. It was no use; she had lost sight of Hugo.

"He'll find us eventually," Hermione finally said, waving her hand dismissively. "Well, I guess this is goodbye then, Rosie. I can't believe this is your last year at Hogwarts!"

Noticing the tears in her mother's eyes, Rose quickly gave her a hug in hopes that it would convince her Mum to stop crying. She had been having these episodes at random intervals all summer—Hermione just wasn't ready for her oldest child to be a grown up. While it was slightly endearing, it was also highly annoying and although Rose would never admit it, her Mum's crying made her want to start sobbing herself.

Rose pulled away and smiled at her mother as Hermione wiped her eyes. "I'm sorry!" Hermione cried. "I just can't help it!" Grinning, Rose turned to her dad.

Ron was standing there looking at his daughter as if she'd grown an extra head. "Dad?" she questioned worriedly.

"You're going into seventh year," he said softly, almost as if the thought had just occurred to him.

"Yes, Ron," Hermione said impatiently from next to him. "I've only been blubbering about this all summer. Have you finally decided to realize what's going on!"

"It's just that…I never went to my seventh year of Hogwarts. Rosie, you're about to complete more schooling that your father!"

Hermione scoffed and Rose couldn't help but laugh at her parents. "Does that really surprise you?" Hermione nearly shouted. "You should have thought about this moment when I was begging you to go back to school with me for seventh year! I warned you—I told you you would regret this. Didn't I, Ronald?"

"I never said I regretted it!" Ron defended himself. "I was simply stating a fact. You're the one who—" His last statement was interrupted by the whistle of the Hogwarts Express.

"Where's Hugo?" Hermione asked distractedly.

"Bye Mum! Bye Dad!" Rose said, kissing them each on the cheek. Ron helped her get her trunk onto the train and then they both returned to Hermione who had magically procured Hugo and was smothering him with unwanted kisses. Harry, Ginny, Albus and Lily were there also. Rose ran over to say goodbye to her aunt and uncle, but there was little time for a further exchange of farewells before the warning whistle sounded. The four cousins jumped onto the train just as it began to move.

"Seventh year, Rose," Lily mused as they began to walk down the corridor. "How does it feel?"

"Bloody brilliant," she admitted. Lily patted her once on the arm before she left to find her own friends—something Rose realized she should probably be doing also. She hadn't seen her best friend Caitlyn Wood since school had ended in June. Caitlyn had spent the summer in Italy with her grandmother and although the two wrote to each other constantly, Rose was sincerely craving Caitlyn's unruly brown hair and her no-nonsense attitude.

Especially after the events of the night before.

Not that Rose was planning on telling her about that particular incident, but it would be nice to have her best friend by her side when she tried to sort her thoughts out.

"Can't find Caitlyn?" Albus asked from behind her. He looked just as alone as she was.

"Can't find Scorpius?" she countered.

"Touché," he laughed. "Let's find an empty compartment and they can find us, shall we?"

"I find that plan very appealing," Rose agreed. It took them several minutes, but they finally found an empty compartment near the back of the train.

"Can I ask you something, Al?" she inquired before she could stop herself.

Albus looked up at the seriousness in her voice. "Okay," he replied as he busied himself with stowing their belongings.

"How did you and Scorpius become friends?" she asked, hoping that her question didn't arouse too much suspicion. "I mean, you're in Gryffindor, he's in Slytherin—and that's not even mentioning his dull personality and horrible disposition. How did you two even meet each other?"

Albus smirked at his cousin. "Was he a total jerk to you after I left last night?"

"Not a total jerk—I just got to thinking about you two. It doesn't make much sense."

"People told us we were going to hate each other," Albus shrugged. "My first night at Hogwarts people kept coming up to me talking about Scorpius Malfoy and how we were supposed to settle the vendetta that our fathers had against each other. We had to prove them wrong."

"How touching," Rose muttered.

"Well nevertheless, thanks for putting up with him last night." Rose shrugged and pulled a magazine out of her purse so that she would have somewhere to look besides at Albus. He was starting to make her feel guilty.

Taking her hint, Albus kept his mouth shut but when Rose looked up at him and noticed that he was staring around the compartment, desperately looking for something to entertain himself, she couldn't help but laugh.

Her laugh quickly turned into a squeal, however, when the compartment door opened and Caitlyn Wood was standing on the other side. Caitlyn laughed as Rose leapt up to hug her best friend.

"I've been gone two months, Rose—not a lifetime!"

"I missed you so much!" Rose cried ecstatically.

"Let the girl into the compartment, Rosie," Albus chuckled. With one last tight squeeze, Rose let Caitlyn go. As soon as his cousin was out of the way, Albus stood up to help Caitlyn with her trunk.

"Thanks," she said.

"How was your summer?" he asked politely in reply.

"Well after my grandmother ran out of things to criticize, it was actually quite enjoyable. She doesn't take well to the heat so Owen and I were able to roam around as we pleased."

"I'm sure your brother loved that," Rose smirked. "How many Italian girls did he shag this summer?"

"It was absolutely amazing, Rose!" Caitlyn said, ignoring this last comment. She was gushing in a way that was thoroughly uncharacteristic. Caitlyn was normally a very serious person who looked down on people who overindulged in fun. "You would love it!

Albus finished situating Caitlyn's trunk and shut the compartment door before sitting back down.

"So what were the boys like?" Rose asked, thoroughly ignoring the fact that a male was present. "Please tell me that you had a hot summer romance with some guy who barely speaks English!" she begged, only half joking.

"I'm sorry to report that my love life is as stagnant as ever," Caitlyn said, blushing fiercely. Albus seemed to think that the best thing to do was pretend like he couldn't hear them, so he had grabbed Rose's copy of _Witch Weekly_ and was flipping through it. "But I would rather not talk about my love life right now," Caitlyn hissed, throwing furtive looks in his direction.

At that moment the compartment door opened once more. Rose's stomach immediately flew into her throat as the figure of Scorpius Malfoy emerged. Memories of the night before flashed quickly to the forefront of Rose's mind, but she brushed those thoughts to the side, trying to slow her racing pulse.

"There you are," Scorpius said to Albus, scanning the room casually. "Come on, we're two compartments down."

"Thank Merlin!" Albus said, standing up and grabbing his bag. "I was about to have to spend the entire train ride listening to these two talking about foreign blokes."

Caitlyn blushed once more, but Scorpius took no notice of her as he turned to Rose. She could sense the sting of his words before he had even opened his mouth. "Weasley, you're hardly allowed to voice a preference for men of other nationalities when you haven't even tried a nice British one yet." Apparently, nothing had changed.

"Sod off, Malfoy."

"Nice comeback. Prove me wrong then. How many boyfriends have you had?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"So, zero?"

"I've had a boyfriend!"

"_A_ boyfriend…as in singular? Tsk, tsk, Weasley. I bet you're still a virgin."

"Not that that's a bad thing!" Albus added hastily, before Rose could think of a witty reply. "And please don't answer that question because I don't want to know one way or the other." Scorpius laughed at his friend and began to open the door so that Albus and he could leave. Albus, however, didn't seem to be done talking.

"I never should have left you two alone together last night," he said, glancing back and forth between Scorpius and Rose. "It's a miracle you didn't kill each other!"

"It was a close call, trust me," Rose deadpanned.

"No, your cousin's actually quite enjoyable to be around when she wants to be," Scorpius smirked. Unbidden, Rose felt her face heat up. She threw him a warning glare which he returned with a casual wink.

"I'll see you two at school," Albus said, and the two boys excused themselves.

"Where were you last night?" Caitlyn asked curiously, looking at the closed compartment door.

"We went to a Weird Sisters concert!" Rose said excitedly and then continued to explain how amazing the entire experience was.

"But with Scorpius though? That must have taken some self-control to keep from hexing him."

"Yeah, a bit," Rose agreed.

The train ride continued in amiable conversation with occasional visits from some of their other friends. A group of fifth year girls, including Lily, had just walked out when the compartment door opened once more. Hugo was on the other side of the door, his red hair matching his flushed face in such a way that it looked as if he had run there.

"Rose, I am mad at you!" he said, just as two more boys came to a stop on either side of him. The first was Parker Thomas and the second was Dylan Stewart. Both of them were seventh year Gryffindors and all three of the boys were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"What in the world did I do this time?" she asked warily, glancing at all three of them. "Hey Parker, hey Dylan." The two boys waved.

"Why didn't you tell me Caitlyn was our new Quidditch captain?" Hugo exclaimed.

Rose looked over to Caitlyn for help. "I figured you must already know," she shrugged. "Albus did."

"You told Albus but not us?" Parker exploded at Caitlyn, although there was a smile on his face. He seemed to find this situation enormously amusing.

"I didn't tell Albus anything," Caitlyn shrugged casually. "But he's Head Boy. Maybe McGonagall told him."

"Bollocks!" Parker cried.

"Albus is Head Boy?" Dylan laughed heartily. "Oh, this should be good. Madeline's Head Girl." Madeline Stewart was Dylan's twin sister and a Ravenclaw.

"That really should be good," Parker smirked, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively. "For Albus." Dylan hit him hard in the shoulder.

The three boys walked in and took seats around the compartment. They immediately began talking to Caitlyn about Quidditch strategy, a topic that bored Rose to no end. She liked playing Quidditch for fun, but she failed to understand the hype surrounding organized sports.

As Caitlyn began passing her playbook around, Rose was left to her own thoughts which were currently drifting to very dangerous places. Scorpius Malfoy was fixed in her mind just as firmly as he had been the night before. And while Rose had assumed that she would regret her actions, she found this not to be true. In fact, she wanted nothing more than to repeat the incident as soon as possible.

Was she growing attracted to Malfoy? That thought didn't seem very possible. Never in a million years would Rose want to date someone like him. But there was no way to deny that the boy was good looking. And physically, Rose was more attracted to him than she could remember ever being to anyone else.

And this was technically all Albus's fault because she highly doubted that she would have ever found Malfoy attractive if she hadn't been forced to see him outside of school.

Not really knowing what she was about to do, Rose found herself standing up.

"Uh…I want another licorice wand. I'm going to go see if I can find the candy cart."

"Bring me another box of chocolate frogs if you find her," Caitlyn requested.

"And some Bertie Botts," Hugo added. "I'm stocking up for term."

"Sure," Rose answered distractedly. She opened the compartment door and then shut it again before leaning against the wall of the train and trying to figure out what her plan of action was.

She knew why her body had dragged her out here: it wanted Malfoy. And she also knew why her mind had gone along with her body's wishes: it wanted Malfoy as well. Rose both wanted to snog the boy senseless and to talk to him. The problem was that Scorpius was not one to typically talk about his feelings. Neither was Rose for that matter, but they needed to work some things out.

Scorpius was also very unlikely to be single, although that was more of an assumption than fact. Who had Rose been helping him to cheat on and what would they do if they ever found out? Although there was very little chance of anyone ever finding out considering that if Albus ever heard about this, it wouldn't just be Malfoy who was in trouble.

Suddenly the voice that had been haunting her thoughts floated through the air and lingered around her. Looking around, she realized that the door to the compartment two down was open and Malfoy's voice was coming from it.

Now, why would the compartment door be open unless a certain Slytherin was waiting on someone in particular to walk by? At least that's what Rose told herself as she did indeed walk right past the door, her pace slow enough so that she could be recognized by anyone who cared to look.

To her immense surprise and pleasure, she immediately heard Scorpius excuse himself and shut the compartment door closed behind him. Rose did not turn around but kept walking as if there had been no ulterior motive to her actions.

"Come with me," Scorpius whispered in her ear, taking her by her elbow and leading her through the train.

"What if I don't want to come with you? I have other things to do, you know."

"Of course you do," he said sarcastically. "Just come with me." Rose rolled her eyes, but let him pull her along regardless.

It only took them a few minutes to find a compartment. Scorpius opened the door, peeked in and gestured for Rose to go in first. She walked past him close enough that she was able to catch the scent of his cologne, a smell that was uniquely Scorpius.

After shutting the door behind him, Scorpius turned to Rose with his characteristic smirk plastered onto his face. He took a step nearer to her and although Rose wanted nothing more than to allow him to touch her, she took a step back. She had morals to defend after all! He quirked an eyebrow at her and took another step forward. This time she had neither the will power nor the room left to move.

"Good morning, Weasley," he greeted smugly, as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Good morning, Malfoy," she repeated.

Still smirking, he closed the distance between them with a kiss. Rose had to stifle a moan at the feel of his warm lips on hers. The last thing she needed was for Scorpius to realize exactly what effect he was having on her.

Whether it was a newfound confidence or just the lack of alcohol in his system, Scorpius was taking matters into his own hands much more readily than he had the night before. After only a few minutes, he had un-tucked her shirt and was drawing patterns on the small of her back.

"Malfoy," she said, pulling away with some difficulty. "We can't do this."

"Mmm," he replied as he bent lower to nibble on her neck. Rose highly doubted he was paying her any attention at all. This time, she couldn't help but let out a whimper. She felt Malfoy smile against her throat before he returned his ministrations to her lips.

After a minute or two, Rose stopped protesting. She'd always heard Malfoy was superb at snogging, but she'd never really understood how different guys could kiss differently until now. Malfoy made her feel things that she was completely unfamiliar with. For the first time she realized why people made stupid decisions when it came to the opposite sex. Malfoy made her want to lose control.

When it became quite obvious that Scorpius was not planning on stopping any time soon, Rose took it upon herself to take a seat on one of the compartment benches. Scorpius eagerly followed her lead, and lowered her onto the seat so that he was on top of her.

Every inch of him was touching her. Rose's first and only boyfriend had never been this close to her and she had let Malfoy get there in only two days—and they'd barely spoken at all!

"Malfoy," she tried again, pushing him away more forcefully this time. "We _can't_ do this."

"Yes we can," he said, rolling his eyes and leaning in to kiss her once more.

"Albus," she said once he paused to take a breath. It was the only word that needed to be spoken.

"Way to ruin the mood," he said harshly, sitting up. Rose did the same.

"It's just an issue that needs to be addressed!"

"Are you going to tell him?" he asked fiercely.

"Of course not!" Rose defended herself.

"Then I don't see the problem. Albus is my best mate, but I'm not doing anything wrong. Do you like snogging me?"

"I'm not answering that question."

"Fine then," he sighed. "The way I see it, we have two options. The first option is that we stop this and pretend like it never happened."

"And the second option?" Rose asked, pleased by the fact that apparently she hadn't been the only one thinking through options.

"The second option is that we can continue doing this indefinitely."

Putting aside his options because Rose had no idea which one she wanted to pick, she asked a different question instead. "Do you have a girlfriend?"

The question made Scorpius grin. "Funny how you ask that _after_ we've been snogging for nearly an hour."

"Just answer the damn question."

"No, I don't think I will," he shrugged.

"I'm not going to help you cheat on anyone, Malfoy," Rose said adamantly.

"And what if I don't have a girlfriend?"

"You tell me. Do you want me to become one of your Regulars? That's what Albus calls them, isn't it? The girls that you shag on a regular basis. Because I'm not about to do that!"

"Are you sure you don't want to reconsider?" Scorpius smirked.

Growing more and more livid by the second, Rose stood up. "I'm not interested. And I've got a prefect meeting in ten minutes, so I'm leaving."

"I've got a prefect's meeting in ten minutes also, Weasley," he said, grabbing her wrist and pulling her back into the seat. "So sit back down."

"What more could you possibly have to say to me?"

"Just that you never answered my question. Are we stopping this or not?"

That was the dilemma, wasn't it? Rose knew that she didn't want to stop. She also knew that she would probably regret this if she didn't.

"I'll get back to you," she said calmly and without another word, she excused herself from the compartment.

Rose walked around the corridors aimlessly for several minutes before she entered the prefects' carriage. She was surprised to find that Scorpius had beaten her there and was already in the middle of an animated conversation with Albus and Madeline Stewart, the Head Girl.

Cursing to herself, Rose scanned the small group of assembled prefects in order to find someone friendly enough to sit next to. She spotted Hugo talking to some of his fellow fifth years, but thought twice about joining him when one of the boys looked her way and noticeably licked his lips. Instead, she looked to the other side of the room and was pleased to find Owen Wood sitting there alone. He waved lightly and Rose smiled back at him as she walked over to take the empty seat on his right.

Owen was a burly sixth year and more like his sister, Caitlyn, than either of them were willing to admit. Rose and Owen had always had a unique friendship ever since he started Hogwarts the year after she did. It mainly consisted of flirting with each other ceaselessly and trying to convince Caitlyn that they were secretly in love and would one day parent children together.

"Hello," Rose greeted. "How was your summer? Cheat on me with any Italian women?"

"You know I would never do that!" he exclaimed, leaning over to hug her. "How 'bout yours?"

"Honestly, I'm glad to be back at school," she admitted.

"I kind of am too," he sighed. "Especially since Davies graduated last year. It looks like there's finally going to be a place for me on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team!"

"You should have been playing ages ago," Rose mused. "Ravenclaw just refuses to ditch their old players. Anyone who's ever seen you fly knows that you have all of your dad's talent, if not more." Owen and Caitlyn's dad was Oliver Wood, arguably the best Keeper Gryffindor house had ever seen. His successors, including Rose's father, had never quite lived up to his legacy. Even Caitlyn, who played the same position, didn't quite amount to his former glory. Owen, however, was another story and Rose knew Caitlyn knew this. This would be an interesting year.

"Caitlyn's so jealous!" Owen said happily. "The funny thing is I think Mum and Dad are hoping she'll beat me. They both played for Gryffindor. Screw the fact that I'm their son—they're slightly biased."

Rose laughed at that. "Quidditch is just a sport! Why don't people realize that?"

Owen's mouth was open to give what looked like a serious response when he was interrupted by Albus calling the meeting to order.

The formalities of being a prefect had long ago lost their appeal to Rose. As Albus droned on and on about their necessary duties and such, her mind began to drift. And it wasn't helping that Scorpius was sitting just a few rows in front of her where she had an unobstructed view of his blonde hair and the delicate curve of his neck; thoughts of their shared time together filled her mind.

"It will still be necessary to run patrols three days a week. You will each be assigned a partner, but if you have a particular preference on partners or days, you can speak to either me or Madeline," Albus explained.

"Sweet," Owen said, nudging Rose. "Partners?"

"Due to scheduling purposes, however," Madeline added. "The person you patrol with will need to be in your own year."

Owen and Rose looked at each other dejectedly. Rose even pouted for good measure.

"I now understand the trials of dating an older woman!" Owen joked.

Rose stifled a laugh as Albus opened his mouth once more. "Well, I think that's it. This meeting is now over. Everyone have a good term."

People immediately began standing up and filing out of the room until there were only a few left socializing.

"Seriously though," Rose said as her and Owen walked out of the compartment. "How was your summer?"

"Well, Italy was amazing!" he answered. "But I have to admit I was missing home a little bit."

"Oh," Rose said knowledgeably. "What's her name?"

"Whose name?" Owen asked innocently, but a blush was rising to his cheeks.

"Who are you dating, Owen?"

"Danielle Beauchamp," he finally admitted. To say Rose was shocked would be an understatement. Owen, who was someone that she looked up to and even admired as being one of the good guys, was dating one of the girls that Rose was convinced guys only dated for sex. Danielle wasn't daft, exactly, but she wasn't one of the honorable members of Ravenclaw house either. And there was no way in hell that Owen couldn't know that.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Yeah. She dated—"

"Albus, I know," Rose finished for him. "Last year."

"You're judging me, Rosie," he sighed.

"I'm just surprised," she admitted.

"I really like her and she says she really likes me. I'm giving her a chance."

"And everyone deserves one of those," Rose shrugged, although she didn't really believe her words. Owen smiled and gently kissed her cheek before the two split ways. When Rose got back to the compartment she had been sharing with Caitlyn, she found it empty. They were only a few minutes from Hogwarts, however, so Rose wasn't too worried. She'd find her soon regardless.

Just as she'd predicted, the train had barely stopped at Hogsmeade before Rose ran into Caitlyn (quite literally) as they tried to find an empty carriage.

"There you are!" Caitlyn sighed in relief. "I was starting to think the prefects had eaten you alive. Where did you get off too?"

"I was with your brother, actually."

"Of course you were," Caitlyn groaned. "Are we really going to go through this again this year?"

"You know for a fact that you wouldn't be upset if Owen and I actually started dating," Rose said as they climbed into an empty carriage. "You just don't like us picking on you."

Caitlyn laughed. "Mum thinks you two would make a cute couple, by the way."

"Seriously?" Rose laughed. "Well that may just be in comparison to Danielle. Has he lost his mind?"

"Apparently," Caitlyn shrugged. "He actually thinks she's changed!"

They continued talking about the absurdity of boys until the carriage started moving. It was just starting to pick up speed as a figure jumped in the open side door. Both girls screamed.

"Damn it, Al!" Rose cried angrily as she shoved him off of her. "What is your problem?"

"And how did you know it was us?" Caitlyn asked, amused.

"Hugo knew where you were," Albus shrugged. "And is it a sin to want to spend just a little bit more time with my cousin?"

"I'll forgive you if you answer a question," Rose replied coyly.

"Depends on the question. Your forgiveness really isn't necessary for my happiness."

"Why did you date Danielle Beauchamp?" she asked, choosing to ignore his previous statement.

"Sex." Caitlyn widened her eyes in shock at his honesty. "Don't judge me!" he laughed. "You knew that was the answer or you wouldn't be asking. She wasn't exactly good conversation. Sometimes you just need someone who doesn't want to talk."

"You're such a boy!" Rose complained.

"That was last year. I'm more mature now."

"You really think that you can do that much maturing over one summer?" Caitlyn asked doubtfully.

"After the summer I've had?" he asked, looking her dead in the eyes. "I know it."

"What? Did Aunt Ginny force you to actually do chores or something?" Rose joked.

"No," Albus countered. "I spent a whole summer with you and didn't try to hex you once—now that's a sign of maturity!"

"Love you too, Al!"

When they arrived at Hogwarts castle, Albus separated from the two girls. The Sorting and the Welcome Feast were as interesting as they ever were (which is to say, not very) but by the time Headmistress McGonagall had dismissed them for bed, Rose was ready to go. Albus had invited her back to his private dormitory earlier in the day, but she now found that she didn't have the energy to act happy for him at the moment. Instead, her and Caitlyn exited the Great Hall and joined the mass of people heading for their Common Rooms.

"So how long do you think it will take for Albus to ask Madeline out?" Rose asked just to make conversation.

"Bound to take a week or two at least, wouldn't you say?" Caitlyn replied. "I mean, he's not Scorpius; he at least tries to woo them first."

"Well if he spends much more time with Scorpius, that might change."

"Or maybe we're wrong on all accounts," Caitlyn said suddenly, looking over at something behind Rose's shoulder. Rose turned to find a sight that chilled her blood. Scorpius Malfoy was walking out of the Great Hall, his fingers intertwined with those of Madeline Stewart.

Rose Weasley had un-knowingly helped Scorpius Malfoy cheat on the one girl that she thought it would be impossible for any guy to ever cheat on. Madeline was smart, pretty, and level-headed. She wasn't Scorpius's type at all and although Rose gave him a bit of credit for branching out from his stereotypical bimbo type, this was almost worse. Because this proved that Scorpius Malfoy was incapable of feeling anything for anyone. If he couldn't stay faithful to a girl like Madeline, then there was no hope for the rest of the world. Rose included.

As Rose walked slowly up the stairs to her own dormitory several minutes later, she couldn't help but dwell on the fact that she had just snogged the Head Girl's boyfriend.

Things were about to get interesting.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

**A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter! It made me want to get this one out earlier than I'd planned. I know a lot of new characters were introduced, but hopefully it wasn't too confusing.**

**Review, please!**


	3. Secrets and Lies

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Secrets and Lies_

Once Rose awoke the next morning, she began to feel a twinge of regret about her affair with Malfoy for the first time. Not because of what they had done, but because of how much sleep it was costing her. It was her first day of seventh year and there was a very good chance that she was going to fall asleep during her first class. With the concert and the back-to-school hysteria from the nights before, she was operating on less than a minimal amount of sleep.

While the fault for this probably lay with Rose herself, she was choosing to blame her roommates.

The bimbos that Rose and Caitlyn were forced to share a dormitory with were the main reason that the two girls had become friends in the first place. As Sylvia, Jasmine, and Hanna droned on and on about boys and the magical qualities of lipgloss, Rose and Caitlyn had found solace in each other. The situation had only gotten worse over the years as they insisted that Rose help them to get Albus's attention. Before Albus it had been James and they were even starting to show interest in Hugo, which Rose had put a stop to the second it began. The last thing she needed was for her roommates to be salivating over her younger brother for an entire year.

As was the tradition with Sylvia and her minions, at the beginning of every school year they took it upon themselves to call "dibs" on the boy that they wanted to date that year. Caitlyn and Rose normally found this conversation entertaining in a these-girls-are-so-pathetic sort of way, but that only lasted as long as they weren't forced to participate in the discussion. As soon as the brunt of the conversation was aimed towards them, tensions rose.

Caitlyn, who Sylvia saw as her own personal project, had had it much worse than Rose did. The relentless hounding they had put Caitlyn through about whom she fancied had left her angry and irritable. At breakfast the next morning, Caitlyn's head was resting on her arms in the seat next to Rose and Rose was not entirely unconvinced that she hadn't fallen asleep right where she sat.

Rose knew how much Caitlyn hated people pointing out that she had never had a boyfriend, so typically the friends stayed away from discussions that involved romance in any way whatsoever. If Caitlyn had a crush on someone, she hadn't told Rose. And never in a million years would Rose want to admit to Caitlyn about her escapades with Malfoy. They were best mates, but there were still some things that were too personal to share. Especially between two girls who viewed talking about your feelings as a sin.

When Sylvia had asked Rose who she fancied the night before, Rose had had no problem with responding, "Peeves." But that simple little question had kept her up nearly all night. Who _did _Rose like?

At the end of her last school year and all throughout the summer, Rose had a slight crush on Dylan Stewart. She hadn't even thought about that crush since the night of the concert. Scorpius had completely erased him from her thoughts. But did she fancy Scorpius?

Snogging Scorpius had somehow made her life simpler. She was no longer thinking about Dylan, someone who (now that she took the time to think about it) was completely wrong for her. Maybe that's why Scorpius was so interested in being with her too. Maybe snogging Rose made his feelings for Madeline seem simpler. If he was snogging Rose, then he didn't have to dwell on what he was feeling for Madeline. If he was cheating on her, their relationship couldn't be serious—and Rose was sure Scorpius would be able to convince himself of that. A complicated situation for him would suddenly become simple.

Or maybe Rose just hoped that was the case—she liked to think that guys didn't cheat on girls like Madeline Stewart without a good reason.

Of course, there was always the possibility that Scorpius really was just a cad.

Rose was distracted as Albus sat down across from both of the girls. He had a large stack of parchment with him which Rose eyed curiously. "I need to talk to you," he said to her. Caitlyn finally arose from her stupor and lifted her head slowly at the sound of his voice.

"What's all that?" Rose asked, gesturing to the parchment. He ignored her but instead looked over at Caitlyn worriedly.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

Caitlyn took several seconds to think about a response but her gaze never left Albus. Rose stared back and forth between the two warily. Although Caitlyn's eyes were lined with dark bags, Rose could still make out a red tinge surrounding them. It looked like Caitlyn had been crying. What the hell was going on?

"No," Caitlyn finally responded, "I'm not okay." Without any explanation, she picked up her bag and left the Great Hall. Utterly baffled, Rose followed her with her eyes until her friend was out of sight. She had half a mind to go after her right then, but Professor Longbottom hadn't yet passed out the Gryffindor schedules and Albus was still waiting to discuss something with her.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked.

"I think she's just tired," Rose shrugged. "Sylvia, Jasmine, and Hanna were up all night talking about…whatever they talk about."

"They didn't say anything to piss Cate off did they?"

Rose was about to explain the whole conversation to her cousin, but then thought better of it. Something seemed to be going on between Albus and Caitlyn and if they were in the middle of a row that they hadn't informed Rose about, she didn't want to hand Albus fuel for the fire. "She's fine," Rose grunted. "I'll go find her in a minute. What do you need?"

"What?" Albus asked, obviously forgetting why he was there in the first place.

"You said you needed to talk to me," Rose prompted.

"Oh, right," he said, turning back to look at her. "I have to give you your prefect patrol schedule."

"That's all? You had me worried! Don't ever say 'we need to talk' when it's about patrol schedules!"

Albus winced slightly. "There's a little bit more. How do you feel about patrolling with Scorpius?" Rose could feel her face visibly fall. "He requested you personally and quite frankly I think it's a good idea, even if he's only doing it because he thinks you'll be easy to skip out on. You won't put up with his bullshit and that's what I need."

"Albus, you can't!" Rose groaned, but even she could feel that this issue wasn't up for debate, not really. If Rose wasn't his cousin, he wouldn't even bother to ask. "Let me patrol with Owen!"

"My hands are tied, Rosie. Owen's a sixth year. Just please say you won't be mad."

"No, I'm mad," she said.

Albus rolled his eyes. "I don't have time to deal with this. You're patrolling with Scorpius—if you have a problem with that, then I'm taking your badge."

"You wouldn't," Rose hissed.

"Today, I would," he said angrily, grabbing a piece of parchment and tapping it with his wand. He then handed it to her, patrol schedule and all. "Have a good first day of class," he said sarcastically and then continued on down the table to find the next prefect. Rose was still fuming when Professor Longbottom stopped in front of her, his arms also full of loose parchment.

"Hello, Neville," Rose greeted before realizing that she had used his first name—a habit that she developed over the summers when he was constantly visiting both Rose's house and the Potter's. "Sorry," she groaned.

"Well, you only have one more year of calling me Professor," he chuckled. "Same classes as last year, I presume?"

"Yes, Sir." He tapped a piece of parchment and, like Albus, handed a full schedule to her.

"Well have a good last year, Rose."

"I'm sure it won't be as interesting as your seventh, Professor," Rose said, glancing down at her schedule. "What with you organizing a renegade club to defeat Voldemort and all."

Neville eyes glazed over and a small smile came to his face at the memories. "That year sure was interesting. My eighth, however—the one where I actually learned the stuff I needed in order to graduate—that one's going to be more what you should expect this year. I'll see you in my NEWT class after lunch."

Rose nodded. Professor Longbottom had already moved on to make Parker Thomas's schedule when Rose remembered something. "Can I get Caitlyn's schedule as well, Professor? She wasn't feeling good and left breakfast early."

"I actually need to talk to her about a few things concerning the Quidditch team. But she has a free period this morning and then me right after lunch. I'll give her schedule to her then." Rose nodded her thanks, took one last bite of toast, and left to find Caitlyn. She only had a half hour before she had to be in her first class, but Caitlyn had scared her this morning and she wanted to know what was going on.

She had just passed the Charms corridor when she saw her friend sitting in a deserted alcove. It was luck more than anything that Rose found her when the look on her face clearly said that she didn't want to be found.

"What's wrong?" Rose asked, sitting down next to her friend.

"I didn't mean to run out of the Great Hall like that," Caitlyn answered softly. "I just…I just needed to be alone for a few minutes."

"Alone as in away from Albus?"

Caitlyn lifted her head in shock. "No, of course not! Why would you—"

"Then is it Sylvia?" Rose interrupted.

Caitlyn groaned in frustration. "I know I shouldn't let her get to me, but I just can't help it sometimes!"

"What did she say this time?" Rose asked, trying to think back to their conversation from the night before.

"I'm just sick of her pointing out that I've never had a boyfriend!" Caitlyn said heatedly. "Just because I'm single doesn't mean I'm cursed or anything! It's not a bad thing!"

"Of course not! You don't see guys lining up to date me either," Rose said dejectedly.

A long moment of silence passed between them. "Do you believe in love, Rose?"

"Some days," she finally answered.

"I want to believe in love," Caitlyn admitted. "But it scares me a little bit too."

Not knowing what else to do, Rose leaned in and hugged her. "Do you feel a little better?" she asked when they pulled apart.

"A little is about right."

"You're not going to be single forever," Rose said, trying to lighten the mood. "What about Fred?" Caitlyn rolled her eyes. Fred Weasley had graduated the year before with James. He and Caitlyn had been nearly as inseparable as Rose and Albus. Katie Wood, Caitlyn's mum, was best friends with Rose's Aunt Angelina. Therefore, Caitlyn and Fred had grown up practically in the same crib.

"Not funny," she said. "You know he's like my brother. Once when I was little," she added, smiling, "I asked my mum why my brother had different parents than me." Rose laughed. "Plus, I always figured you'd have issues with your best friend dating within your family."

"My dad's best friend married his sister. I have no qualms with that particular issue," Rose smirked.

"Well then, I have something I need to tell you," Caitlyn said seriously. "I've been seeing Hugo for a few months now." Rose almost laughed, thinking it was a joke but upon observing the serious look on Caitlyn's face she froze. Caitlyn, however, burst into laughter. "You should have seen your face! That's payback for all of the years you and Owen have played that trick on me!"

Rose hit her playfully on the arm just as the warning bell rang. "I'm going to get you for that," she smiled. "But I have to go to class. Longbottom said you have a free period this morning and then him after lunch. He'll give you your schedule then." Caitlyn nodded her understanding and Rose took off running in order to get to Ancient Runes in time.

There were very few students who had continued Ancient Runes on the NEWT level. Rose had only done so because she seemed to have a natural affinity for the subject—a trait she was sure she had inherited from her mother who was currently one of the leading Ancient Runes translators in the wizarding world.

The other NEWT students were already present, so there was only one chair open. Rose took a deep breath as she sat down next to Madeline Stewart. Madeline had always been one of her best friends in this class. As Albus had obviously decided to drop this subject for seventh year, it looked like it was just going to be the two of them.

"Hey," Madeline smiled.

"Hi," Rose said, refusing to make eye contact as she pulled her book out of her bag. She could feel her cheeks heating up and didn't turn back to Madeline until she had managed to control her facial expressions.

Thankfully, Rose's tardiness left them not having to exchange more than a casual greeting. When the bell rang for break, she left before she had to say anything else. Even though she had not known Scorpius was dating Madeline when she had first snogged him, she still felt guilty.

This feeling had not dissipated in the slightest by the time she arrived in Herbology that afternoon. She had been dreading this class all day—not because she didn't like the subject, but because Herbology was one of the larger NEWT classes. This meant that for the next hour and a half, Rose was going to be sharing a class with Albus and Caitlyn, who were still dancing around each other awkwardly, and Scorpius and Madeline who she was avoiding for obvious reasons. Dylan Stewart was also present, talking to Parker Thomas in low voices and throwing Scorpius murderous glances. According to the rumors flying around, Dylan had been just as surprised as Rose to find out that his sister was dating a Malfoy.

Professor Longbottom ordered them into groups of three and to Rose's surprise, she and Caitlyn were joined at their station by Albus who typically partnered with Scorpius. Although Rose was still mad at him for forcing her to patrol with Malfoy, she decided to let it go.

"Scorpius not good enough for you anymore?" she asked stiffly.

"I'm not interested in being a third wheel," he shrugged. "Plus, I don't want to make Dylan mad right now. He's my friend too and I don't want him thinking I've taken Scorpius's side when in actuality this whole thing is juvenile and none of my business." Rose shrugged as they began to work. Caitlyn was unusually quiet, but Rose just ignored it.

"So, are you okay?" Albus asked Caitlyn after a few minutes of working in silence. "You seemed a little…tired at breakfast today."

"I'm fine," she said politely. A little too politely in Rose's opinion.

And as much as they tried, Rose and Albus couldn't get Caitlyn to join the conversation for the rest of class. It was only after Professor Longbottom had dismissed them that she said anything at all.

"I was thinking about having tryouts on Saturday," she said to Albus. "Does that work for you?"

"Yeah," he agreed readily, happy that she was talking.

"Good," she muttered and walked over to Dylan and Parker who were talking in low voices.

"Are you sure she's okay?" Albus asked Rose, never taking his eyes off of Caitlyn. Following his gaze, Rose noticed that Caitlyn was talking quite animatedly with Parker and Dylan. It seemed that it was either Rose or Albus that was making her uncomfortable. And Rose highly doubted it was her.

"She's fine," Rose said harshly, wondering secretly if Albus had said something privately to Caitlyn that was making her act this way. Albus glared at her but didn't object as she walked over to Caitlyn.

"Okay, so tryouts are Saturday," she was saying to the boys. "And I'm telling Longbottom right now, so don't you dare back out on me!"

"We're going to beat Malfoy for the Cup this year," Dylan said, glaring across the greenhouse at the Slytherin Quidditch Captain who currently had his arm wrapped around his sister. "I'm going to kill him," he muttered.

Caitlyn glanced at Dylan worriedly, but seemed to shrug it off. "I have to go talk to Professor Longbottom about my schedule," she told Rose. "I'll see you in class." Rose nodded and Caitlyn crossed the greenhouse to Longbottom.

"So did you know about that?" Dylan asked Rose, gesturing to his sister who was resting comfortably under Scorpius's arm.

"I didn't," Rose shrugged. "Wish I had. Maybe I could have warned her."

"Thank you!" Dylan cried, turning to Parker exasperatedly. "Finally someone who understands what I'm saying!"

"I didn't say that Malfoy was my first choice of guys to date Madeline," Parker defended himself. "All I said was that she's perfectly capable of taking care of herself. And she's not going to appreciate you intervening."

"There's no way they're not having sex," Dylan muttered quietly. Parker glanced at Rose and rolled his eyes at his friend. Rose grinned as the two boys excused themselves. After cleaning up her supplies, Rose turned to follow them out of the greenhouse.

She had barely stepped onto the lawn when Scorpius emerged in front of her, making her jump. He had obviously been waiting for her to come out. Madeline was no where in sight.

"I don't want to talk to you," she said, stepping around him. She could almost feel him smirk from behind her.

"Of course you don't," he replied, grabbing her arm casually. She yanked her arm out of his grip and turned to glare at him. He looked honestly baffled at her reaction.

"I thought I laid out the ground rules very clearly. As long as you're with her, I will have nothing to do with you!"

"Well who said _I_ wanted anything to do with _you_, Princess," he countered, his whole demeanor changing instantly. "All I wanted to know was where to meet you for rounds tonight."

"Entrance Hall's fine. And be there on time." She stormed past him, wondering how in the world she was supposed to survive patrols with this narcissistic boy all damn year. She left a very bewildered Scorpius in her wake, but she was far from caring about him at this moment. Something was going on between Albus and Caitlyn and she had a very bad feeling about it.

By the time dinner rolled around, Caitlyn seemed almost back to normal but Rose couldn't help but think about how upset she had been earlier. An overwhelming urge to intervene in some way came over her so as soon as she got the chance, Rose went to find Hugo.

"I need your help," Rose said once she found him sitting, thankfully alone, in the Gryffindor common room. He gave her a crooked smile as she sat down across from him.

"Seriously? This is a first!"

"And I need you to swear to hold what I'm about to tell you in the strictest confidence. I wouldn't be asking at all, but I really think you might be able to help me."

"I promise not to speak of this ever again," he said, holding up his hands innocently. "I'd make an Unbreakable Vow, but I think I left my wand in my Quidditch locker this afternoon—and please don't comment on that."

"It's about Caitlyn."

The confused look never left Hugo's face. "Still not seeing where I come in…"

"Do you maybe know of any guys who fancy her?" Hugo's eyes widened in shock.

"Rose, I can't tell you that!"

"Hugo!"

"No! That's got to be breaking the guy code or something!"

"But there _are_ guys that fancy her?" Rose asked desperately.

Hugo continued to shake his head in disbelief. "There are a couple that I know of," he whispered, looking around secretively. "But I'm not giving you names."

"Then why won't they do anything about it!" Rose demanded, growing even angrier. "It's not fair that she's single when she doesn't have to be!"

"Well, why don't you tell me which guy she's interested in and I'll tell you if his name's on my list of guys that like her?"

"Nice try," Rose said, rolling her eyes. "But I have no clue who she likes."

"Then it doesn't seem like me or you would be able to make much of a difference anyway, Rosie. What is this about?"

"I just don't get guys," Rose muttered.

"Well, that's very unsurprising," Albus said, joining the siblings at their table.

"I don't get how guys only want to date girls like Sylvia," she elaborated. "And yet Caitlyn's been single her whole life. How's that fair?" Albus and Hugo exchanged a glance, but Rose didn't bother to ask them about it.

"Girls like Sylvia are desperate. Guys date them because they know they can get away with more. It's not exactly a compliment," Albus said.

"And yet you continue to date girls like that," Rose countered, now growing angry. "You're no different than the rest of the guys at this bloody school!" She stood up angrily, trying to ignore the look of shock on Hugo's face. It was a rare occurrence that Rose and Albus fought with each other, but even Hugo could sense that this was about to get heated and he was the most oblivious person Rose knew.

"Did I do something to you or is this just revenge for making you patrol with Scorpius?" Albus asked angrily, standing up also. "Because you've been a bitch to me today and I can't for the life of me figure out what I'm supposed to have done!"

"Speaking of patrols," Rose grumbled. "I've got to go."

"Rose, don't you dare walk away!" he threatened, walking forward and grabbing her wrist. "Why are you so mad at me?"

"I don't have time for this, Albus. I'll talk to you later." she said.

"Later better mean tonight," he argued.

"Later means whenever I can find time," she hissed.

"The password to the Head's dorm is Fawkes. And if you're not there by midnight, I'm coming to find you."

Shaking her head in disbelief at his antics, Rose left the Common Room still fuming. She had woken up this morning thinking that dealing with Malfoy was going to be the worst part of her day and somehow she had managed to pick a fight with Albus along the way.

Rose knew that she was probably just projecting her anger at Scorpius onto Albus, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out why. Probably because the more she thought about it, the more Albus was starting to remind her of Malfoy—bad parts included. Maybe if she could just get her anger properly directed at Scorpius, this wouldn't be a problem at all.

Scorpius wasn't in the Entrance Hall when she arrived, but then again she _was_ about ten minutes early. The thing she hated most about patrols was the awkwardness on her part whenever she did come across a couple snogging after hours. She remembered distinctively coming across Lily and one of her male suitors last year. As Rose's patrol partner at the time had been Albus, the situation was far worse than it should have been.

That might be a bonus of patrolling with Scorpius, Rose reflected. She doubted that he had any problems with awkward situations.

She heard his footsteps before she saw him. When he rounded the corner, his face fell in disappointment.

"I'm not late!" he cried.

"I know you're not," Rose said. "Can we just get this over with?"

Seeming to sense that Rose wasn't in a good mood, they walked to their assigned corridor in silence. Scorpius kept throwing covert glances her way as if to judge her mood, but he seemed unwilling to speak on the off chance that she might attack him. Feeling that she should at least inform him that he was not the one to blame for her hot temper, she broke the silence.

"Albus and I had a fight, so don't flatter yourself thinking I'm mad because of you."

"Well you have to admit that I'm the cause more often than not," he joked. She didn't so much as crack a smile. "Do you mind me asking what you were fighting about?" he said, suddenly growing serious.

She shook her head slowly. "I'd rather not think about it right now," she answered.

"That's fine," he added hastily. They continued their patrol in silence for several minutes more, Rose still trying to sort out all of the thoughts that were dancing around in her head. "Well," Scorpius said after a while, "while you're already pissed—at someone who is not me, mind—can we talk?"

"About?" she asked, although she already knew what he was going to say.

"You know what about," he groaned exasperatedly.

"I thought I made myself perfectly clear on the train," she said calmly. "I'm not helping you cheat on Madeline."

"What if it wasn't Madeline I was dating?" he asked curiously, noting the emphasis that Rose placed on the other girl's name.

"If it was one of the usual bimbos chasing after you, then they deserve whatever they get for being stupid enough to trust you in the first place."

"That's a double standard if ever I heard one, Weasley," he smiled

Rose shrugged. "Maybe. But that doesn't change the facts. Madeline deserves better than you."

"It's not like you two are friends!" he countered.

"We're friend-_ly_," she defended. Scorpius let out a frustrated groan and came to stand in front of Rose, taking her by the shoulders and stopping her mid-step in the middle of the hallway. Once he realized that she wasn't going to push him away, he moved his arms to her waist and drew her close so that they were only inches apart. After several empty seconds, Rose rolled her eyes in frustration and Scorpius smirked.

He leaned in and, thinking he was about to kiss her, Rose turned her cheek. Instead, Scorpius's lips paused next to her ear. "You know you want this as much as I do," he whispered, sending electricity shooting through her body.

"We just…can't," Rose breathed. Scorpius closed his eyes in aggravation as Rose pulled away and kept walking. He ran to catch back up.

"Well I, quite frankly, am not willing for this to be over. So let's make a deal, shall we?"

"I'm not shagging you either, Malfoy," she joked.

Scorpius continued as if he had not heard her. "I say you pick the second option that I mentioned on the train: we don't stop this, we just postpone it indefinitely. Because if you say right now that we're going to stop this for good, then you're much less likely to come crawling back to me when you feel like it later."

"I think the first option's better," Rose disagreed. "We stop."

"Do you honestly think we're going to be able to stop now?" he scoffed.

"I know you think you're addictive, but you're not. So yes, I think I can stop whenever I very well please."

"Don't do this, Rose," he warned. "You're going to want me back eventually. The second option is really in your best interest."

Rose sighed deeply. "I'm not in the mood to be picking options tonight. I think I'm going to put off picking one for a while yet."

"Well that's not a no," he smirked.

"And it's not a yes," she said, smiling at him.

They continued walking and when Rose looked at her watch, she realized that their patrol was surprisingly almost over.

"Weasley?" he asked after a few minutes. "Can I say something else?"

"I wouldn't dare try to stop you," she muttered.

"I'm sorry," he said sincerely, taking her by surprise. She stopped walking to stare at him curiously.

"For what?"

"For kissing you after that concert." She looked at him doubtfully. "Well, okay not the actually kissing part—I'm glad I did that. But I'm sorry for using you. I'm sorry I'm dating Madeline. It never should have happened and I'm sorry."

"Well thank you for apologizing," Rose finally said and continued walking. "But you have nothing to apologize for. I don't regret what I did. But I'm not compromising my morals for you either."

"I wouldn't want you to," he agreed. Rose raised her eyebrows at him. "Okay, maybe a little bit."

By this time, they had arrived in the Entrance Hall and it was time for them to go their separate ways. "I'll meet you here again Thursday," Rose said.

"See you," he agreed. Rose turned down the hall towards the Head's Common Room, thinking that she should get this fight with Albus over with—she didn't like the thought of going to bed angry with him. Instead of Scorpius turning to go down to dungeons where the Slytherin Common Room was located, however, he followed Rose.

"Where are you going?" she asked him warily as they continued walking.

"Where are _you_ going?"

"_I'm_ going to see Albus."

"Well, _I'm_ going to see Maddie."

"It's past curfew," Rose argued. Scorpius gave her a sideways glance and smirked.

"If I'm out after curfew, then so are you," Rose rolled her eyes at him as they came to a stop in front of the portrait guarding the Head's dorm.

"Fawkes," they said at the same time. The portrait sprung apart just in time for Albus, who was standing on the other side, to see them glaring at each other.

"Good patrol?" he asked sarcastically. They both ignored him and stepped into the room. Rose, who hadn't been in here before, was amazed at just how well furnished it was for only two students.

The walls were lined with bookcases and upon first glance, Rose saw titles encompassing all different subjects. The walls were decorated with hangings from both Gryffindor, in honor of Albus, and Ravenclaw, which was Madeline's house. While the common area was a little intimate, she imagined it was more than enough room for the Head Boy and Girl. If they were planning a party, however, a new location would have to be arranged.

"Madeline just left looking for you," Albus said to Scorpius. Rose was too distracted by the room to care much.

"I guess I'll just wait here," Malfoy sighed, taking a spot on the couch. "Unless you'd prefer I wait in Madeline's room while you two talk." The last part barely came out as a whisper, but Rose heard his words.

"You're fine," Albus muttered. "Might as well have witnesses."

"I can hear you, you know," Rose sighed, putting _The Tales of Beedle the Bard _back onto the shelf.

"I wouldn't insult your hearing by suggesting otherwise," Albus said calmly. Rose turned to face him, desperately trying to ignore the boy sitting on the couch behind them. "So are you going to tell me what's bothering you, or are you going to make me guess?"

"I'm not mad at you," she said finally.

Albus sighed deeply in frustration. "So you've just been insulting me every chance you get for fun? Brilliant! I feel so much better now!"

"Albus, I—"

"No, Rose, listen to me. For the past two days you have done nothing except suggest that I am some sort of womanizing cad. You know me better than anyone and I want to know why the hell you've started thinking like that?"

"Albus, you've—"

"Had a lot of girlfriends?" he interrupted. "Okay, sure. But I've never once shagged someone I wasn't in a committed relationship with. And I've never, ever cheated on a girlfriend. Do you even know how long it's been since my last relationship?"

"I…" She honestly didn't know the answer, but now that she thought about it, it _had_ been a while.

"Christmas, Rose. And I haven't so much as snogged a girl since then. What is going on with you?"

"I don't know," she muttered dejectedly, taking a seat. Albus sighed, but sat down on the arm of the chair that she was in. "I've just…got some things going on. And Caitlyn was acting all weird around you today, so I thought maybe…I don't know. I thought you'd done something to piss her off."

Rose looked up just in time to see Albus exchange a wary glance with Scorpius. "What?" she asked. "I was right wasn't I? Something _is_ going on between you and Caitlyn!"

"No, there's not," Albus said hastily. "There's nothing going on. We just…well...um…"

"She asked you out didn't she?" Rose said sadly, the story finally coming together. "And you said no."

After exchanging one more glance with Scorpius, Albus turned back to his cousin. "Something along those lines," Albus answered. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but I didn't want to put you in the middle of it."

"No, I understand," Rose said. "I'm sorry I've been taking my own frustrations out on you."

"It's fine," Albus shrugged. "But, Rosie, could you please not mention this to Caitlyn. I don't want to embarrass her or anything."

"I won't," she shrugged. But Rose was already formulating plans in her head to get Caitlyn to admit the truth on her own. The two cousins hugged just as the portrait hole opened once more and Madeline entered.

"There you are!" she said, walking over to Scorpius and giving him a quick kiss that physically turned Rose's stomach. As soon as they pulled away, Scorpius glanced at Rose guiltily. "Oh hello, Rose!" Madeline said, noticing her presence. "How were patrols?"

"No problems," she replied politely. "But I really should be getting back to my common room. Night, Al. Madeline." Without bothering to wish Scorpius sweet dreams, Rose stepped out of the overcrowded common room into the hallway where she was finally able to breathe properly again.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**


	4. Decisions, Decisions

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Decisions, Decisions_

When Rose awoke early on Saturday morning, it took her a few minutes to remember exactly why she was up at such an ungodly hour, but once she did she hopped out of bed much faster than she normally would. Gryffindor Quidditch trials were taking place. Rose scurried around her room, frantically trying to find some clothes to wear. Caitlyn was gone, meaning that tryouts had probably already started.

Over the years, Rose had made it a habit to support Hugo, Albus, and Caitlyn by going to these things, even if her support was not necessarily appreciated. She just loved Quidditch.

This year there were only two spots available for Caitlyn to fill: a Beater position and a Chaser position left open upon James's graduation the previous year. Rose rushed out of her dormitory and was about to step outside when she was stopped.

"Now I know you weren't about to go watch trials without me, were you?" Rose turned to find Owen standing there, with his arms crossed across his chest. She looked at him guiltily. Every year they went to the Gryffindor tryouts together, Rose to support her team and Owen to support his sister.

"Sorry," Rose said sheepishly. "I figured you were already out there."

"No, _I_ was waiting on _you_," he smiled.

Rose only paused long enough to smile back at him before they continued on their way, both walking abnormally fast. "Are you even allowed to watch this year?" Rose asked as they hurried to the field. "I mean, there's no way that you're not going to be Ravenclaw's new Keeper."

"My trials aren't until tomorrow," he smirked. "So Cate can't accuse me of spying just yet."

"I feel sorry for her," Rose admitted. "She finally gets Captain and I'm sure all she's thinking about is the fact that there's no way Parker or Hugo can score off of you."

"You really think I'm that good?" he smiled at her compliment.

"Don't go getting an ego," she warned. "_I'm_ still better than you."

"Now, that has nothing to do with talent, Rosie. I simply get distracted when such a pretty girl tries to score in my goal." Rose hit him playfully on the shoulder as they walked onto the pitch which was already rather full with interested spectators. They took a seat in the upper-most benches.

"She's trying out Beaters first," Owen noted, scanning the assembled group of students who were each holding Beaters' bats. After watching a kid hit himself in the head on a practice swing, Rose couldn't help but guffaw quietly into her hand. "And I bet she's missing Fred Weasley right about now," Owen laughed.

"I've heard that McLaggen kid is okay," Rose mused, pointing at a burly fourth year. "Surely Caitlyn won't pick anyone over fifth year. Poor Hugo is going to need some people returning to the team next year or he's going to be all alone. Everyone except him is graduating in June."

Owen shook his head. "Caitlyn doesn't care about next year. She's captain _this_ year. All she wants to do is win."

The surprise of the Beater tryouts came in the form of a very attractive fifth year girl.

"I've never even seen a girl play Beater," Rose said to Owen. "Except on the Harpies, but that's an all girl team."

"Well I'll tell you one thing, if a girl is trying out for Beater then it means she must be pretty damn good."

He was right, of course. Rose watched in utter amazement as the girl hit every Bludger that came her way and aimed them perfectly back at the Chasers who had to work extra hard in order to dodge them. And somehow the girl managed to do it all without even a single hair falling out of place. Even from a distance, Rose could make out the look of manic joy on Caitlyn's face.

"Who is that?" Owen asked. "Because I think I'm in love."

"You have a girlfriend," Rose reminded him. He shushed her playfully. "And I have no clue what her name is." The long blonde hair was familiar, but Rose knew her only by sight.

Caitlyn's whistle blew from above and Rose could hear her telling everyone to take a break while she conversed with her teammates. A few minutes later Brianna Connor was named Beater. She went over to sit with Albus and Dylan as the Chaser tryouts began.

It was obvious from the start that Caitlyn was not going to be able to find someone who had exactly what she wanted—the ability to get a goal past Owen. In fact, Owen was laughing on Rose's right side due to the extreme ineptitude of those present.

As if sensing the fact that someone was laughing at her team, Caitlyn looked over and found them sitting in the crowd. She stared at them hard for a few seconds before calling for a break.

"You know what she's about to do, don't you?" Owen asked as Caitlyn flew towards the pair.

"She's about to beg," Rose groaned.

"You can't argue that they actually do need you this year," he countered. Rose groaned once more. The fact was that she was a very good Quidditch player. A little out of practice, sure, but she had some natural talent. She was a Weasley, after all. She could even provide James and Hugo with a challenge on her better days. That did not change the fact, however, that Rose had little to no interest in being on a Quidditch team. It would take up way too much of her time.

"Rose," Caitlyn said kindly as soon as she landed. "You know you love me, right?"

"Cate, please don't even ask."

"I'm dying out there, Rose!" she said, suddenly growing serious. "And I know that you love to play Quidditch so what is the problem?" she whined.

"I need to focus on my school work. If I want to become a Healer I need top grades."

"Bullshit," she said, surprising both Rose and Owen, who actually started laughing. "Albus is trying to get into Auror training and he's Head Boy. If he can do it, then so can you."

"I just can't, Caitlyn," Rose said, a note of finality in her voice.

"Fine!" Caitlyn hissed and without missing a beat turned to her brother. "You, get in the goal."

"What?" he asked in shock.

"Get in the goal," she said fiercely, pointing at the hoops to emphasize her words. "They're going to try to score off of you."

"Cool!" he cried, hopping down three rows of bleachers.

"And Owen?" she stopped him. He turned back and looked at her expectantly. "Take it easy on them, please." With one last angry look at Rose, she took off into the air. Owen, who had borrowed Dylan's broom, was right behind her.

Not wanting to sit alone, Rose went to join Albus, Dylan, and the girl named Brianna on the field.

"She couldn't convince you to join?" Albus asked when she got close enough.

"I'm just…busy," she said. Dylan started laughing at the cousins as Albus rolled his eyes.

"I'm busier," Albus countered.

"We could really use you, Rose," Dylan begged, looking over at her desperately as Owen blocked shot after shot. "Especially if _he's_ going to be Keeper for Ravenclaw. We're getting slaughtered and this is just a bloody trial."

Rose watched sadly as Caitlyn put her head in her hands and shook her head. Instead of watching the abysmal Chasers, Rose turned to the newcomer.

"Hi, I'm Rose Weasley," she said to the new Beater.

"Bree Connor," she greeted. "And I've heard you're really good." Rose rolled her eyes, not trying to be rude but wanting everyone to just be quiet. "Sorry. But I had to try." Dylan's eyes were still intent on the trials, but he raised his hand back over his head and Bree gave him a high five.

"How often do you practice?" Rose asked reluctantly as yet another player left the field without scoring a single goal.

Albus, sensing a victory was near, tread the water carefully. "Four days a week." Rose sensed that he was lying, but didn't press it. This was her last year at Hogwarts—she might as well make it count.

Rose raised her head to the sky and although she felt like she was seriously going to regret this decision later, she felt even more strongly that if she didn't give Caitlyn and the rest of her friends the chance at the Cup that they deserved, then she'd regret that even more.

"I need a broom," she said, standing up. Albus and Bree both immediately held theirs out for her. She took Albus's and was in the air within seconds.

The feel of a broomstick underneath her was awkward at first; she hadn't flown in almost a year. The least she could do was try and if she sucked….Well, Caitlyn would just have to find someone else.

When Caitlyn saw Rose flying towards her, she honestly thought the girl was going to fall off of her broom in excitement.

"I'm here to try out for the position of Chaser," Rose muttered to her friend. Caitlyn just nodded, looking close to tears.

Before Rose even had a chance to get used to the feel of flying again, a quaffle was pressed into her hand and she was being ushered to the goal.

"You get five shots," Caitlyn told her. Rose just nodded and stared ahead at Owen who was smiling at her from between the goal posts.

"You're not going to take it easy on me, are you?" Rose called over to him.

"Wouldn't dream of it. When's the last time we played together?"

"Must have been your fourth year."

"I've only gotten better," he smirked.

Rose rolled her eyes, but she had no doubt that he wasn't exaggerating at all. And she was incredibly out of practice. She tossed the quaffle lightly from hand to hand, trying to get used to the feel of its weight in her hands. Without warning, she flew straight at Owen and tossed it towards the left hoop.

Caught off guard, Owen barely had time to grab the quaffle. To Rose's immense frustration, however, he did catch it even if only by the tips of his fingers.

"Not bad," he called, throwing it back to her. She caught it easily and after her first attempt, all of her natural instincts began to rush back to her. Owen was good but he wasn't unbeatable. He favored his right side, which was a trait Rose remembered from playing Quidditch with him at Caitlyn's during the summers.

And as he'd admitted earlier, Rose had a feeling that he would be easily distracted in situations such as this.

Rose threw a quick glance at Caitlyn and saw her sitting atop her broomstick, looking as tense as ever. The most any of the hopefuls had gotten past Owen was two goals. Rose had to make three shots in order to get the position and while she knew she was better then all of them while she was in practice, she currently wasn't.

Turning back to Owen, Rose shot towards the goal as fast as she possibly could. She flew straight at him, before turning at the last minute and throwing the quaffle into the hoop on Owen's weak side. It went through flawlessly.

Owen seemed to find the whole thing ridiculously funny and could not stop laughing. "Damn, Rose!" he called. "Where'd you learn a trick like that?"

"I'm pretty sure your mum taught it to me," she laughed, answering honestly. "She always said that she hated being married to a Keeper because she constantly had to come up with new moves to get the quaffle past him."

Rose's third shot went through as easily as the second but she didn't have as much luck on the fourth attempt. By that time, Owen had figured out how to adjust to her method of scoring and was using her own faults against her.

Caitlyn flew over just before Rose went for her last shot. "He favors his right side," she hissed desperately.

"I know!" Rose hissed back. "But he's overcompensating now."

"Then go for his good side this time," she suggested. "He won't be expecting that."

"He knows you're going to tell me that!" Rose countered.

"Well, you've tied with Collin Hunter. We could always do a rematch if we have to. I just really don't want to go through the trouble."

"Ok, just back off," Rose said finally, after staring Owen down for several seconds. "I think I'll be able to distract him."

"Owen can't be distracted," Caitlyn warned.

"Not by you," Rose agreed. "I've got this. Trust me."

Reluctantly, Caitlyn removed herself from Rose's personal area and Rose flew in front of Owen, trying to think of a plan of action. While she was confident in her abilities, that didn't change the fact that getting the quaffle past Owen was hard enough on a good day and although she didn't want to resort on cheap tactics that seemed like the only way to guarantee a spot on the team. Rose may not have come outside that morning wanting a spot on the team but now that she was there, there was no way in hell she would settle for second best.

And she knew exactly what would distract a sixteen year old boy.

Chuckling to herself as the thought occurred to her, Rose quickly brushed it away. No way in hell was she gutsy enough to do that. But the more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea. And it wasn't like girls didn't practice Quidditch in just bras all the time.

Rose turned around briefly to observe her surroundings. The only people in the air were Caitlyn, Hugo, Parker, and Owen. While the stands were relatively full, no one was close enough to see enough of what Rose was about to do to embarrass her.

Without pausing to think her plan through completely, Rose removed her T-shirt leaving her wearing only a black bra. Cursing herself for not wearing a sport's bra that morning, Rose paused only long enough to throw her shirt to Caitlyn before she flew towards Owen and threw the quaffle through the right hoop. Owen's reflexes were several seconds too late.

"Not fair, Rose!" he cried, as she stopped right in front of him, a smug look on her face. But he was smiling and she knew that he was enjoying the situation if nothing else.

"Put your shirt on, Rose," Caitlyn laughed flying over to the pair. "And welcome to the team." Rose shrugged back into her shirt as Hugo and Parker flew over to her, each wearing very different expressions.

"I'm scarred for life. So thank you very much," Hugo said.

"And I'm not. So thank you very much," Parker agreed. They flew down to the field, still laughing as Caitlyn announced the results to those who hadn't seen.

"You owe me for that," Owen said as they landed.

"I've seen the girls on the Ravenclaw team practicing in barely anything, Owen—so get used to it."

"_They_ are not _you_," he smiled.

"Rose Weasley," an angry voice said from behind her. She spun around to find Albus looking livid. Owen squeezed her shoulder reassuringly, but left hurriedly to talk to Caitlyn. "Did you seriously just take your shirt off?" he groaned.

"Maybe a little," she shrugged. "It's not like you could see it."

"Yeah, well I got the gist of it—Dylan has Omnioculars. Did you hear him cat-calling? Because that was definitely fun for me."

Rose was distracted from his rant by the sight of Scorpius Malfoy standing several feet behind Albus. He smirked at her, his hands resting casually in his pockets.

"It's over," Rose said, diverting her attention back to Albus. "I'm on the team. Nothing else matters." Albus looked as if he wanted to argue that point, but he was silenced as Rose handed him back his broom and without another word, headed back up to the castle.

**.*.**

Rose was still feeling incredibly proud of herself for earning a spot on the team when she had to meet Scorpius for patrols that night. Even though she knew she was going to receive hell from him due to her tactics for getting said spot, she didn't think that even he could dampen her spirits.

"I have to say, Weasley," he said as he rounded the corner into the Entrance Hall, "I've been look forward to patrols all day."

"Well, I'm glad I was able to provide you with a little motivation," she replied sardonically.

"How about a replay of your trials this afternoon?" he suggested. "My vantage point left a lot to be desired."

"How about we do what we're here to do and actually patrol?"

"Whatever you want," he grinned. "We're on the Astronomy Tower tonight."

Rose groaned. "The Astronomy Tower on a Saturday night? You've got to be kidding me! Albus has one sick sense of humor."

"The Astronomy Tower's easy," Scorpius argued. "All you have to do is make one go around and then lock the door and entertain yourself otherwise for the rest of your patrol. Of course, last year I was patrolling with Brooke Smith and she had absolutely no problem with snogging me while I had a girlfriend."

"Is that supposed to make me feel guilty?" Rose asked. "That I won't do something that Brooke Smith will do?"

Scorpius laughed. "I guess you have a valid point there."

"Merlin, how can Madeline possibly put up with you?"

"Am I really so vile that you can't understand how someone would even dream of spending time with me when they aren't being forced to for prefect duties?" he asked, a slight smirk on his mouth.

"You're all right when you want to be," she admitted. "But surely Madeline hasn't been living under a rock for the past six years. She knows as well as anyone about your…partners."

"Maybe I've changed," he smirked. Rose rolled her eyes as they stepped out onto the Astronomy Tower. The summer night was cooler than she had expected but she had to admit that the feel of the wind against her face made her feel much more awake. "I doubt anyone will be up here the first weekend of term," Scorpius said, looking around.

And just like the expert Rose supposed he was, Scorpius's words rang true. They didn't encounter a single couple as they circled the Tower.

"Why is that?" she asked out of curiosity.

"Why is what?" he asked.

"Why is no one here tonight? Normally it's crowded with couples."

"People haven't had enough time to figure out the prefect patrol schedule. It's different every year. Uh, like last year patrols ended at one in the morning. Also, certain patrol groups will let you pay for a spot up here unbothered. It'll be full by the end of the month—people just have to learn the routine first."

"People actually put that much thought in where to snog?" Rose laughed.

"What did you and Spencer do then?" he asked. Rose was taken aback at the use of her ex-boyfriend's name.

"I thought you doubted I'd ever had a boyfriend and here you are calling him by name," she mused.

Scorpius actually smiled. "I'm not completely oblivious."

After they locked the door to the Astronomy Tower with one of Scorpius's best locking charms, the couple sat down in an alcove against the hard stone wall. The stone was cold against Rose's back and an involuntary shiver ran down her spine.

"Want my cloak?" Scorpius asked, although he seemed unwilling to give it up.

"No thanks," she responded as the chill went away but she was impressed by the offer. If nothing else, Scorpius had definitely been raised with manners.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, Rose just staring at the stars shining above them.

"I've got something to tell you," Scorpius said suddenly. Rose turned to face him. His voice was coated in a seriousness that she had never heard from him before. "Something Albus told me not to tell you."

Rose looked at him curiously. "About what?" she asked.

"Caitlyn," he answered.

Rose rolled her eyes. "I can't believe Albus would embarrass Caitlyn by telling you all of the details on how he turned her down!"

"He didn't!" Scorpius said angrily. "But when a guy asks out a girl that he _really_ likes and _she_ turns _him_ down, then he typically complains about the whole situation to his best mate."

"What are you talking about?" Rose asked, but she was already beginning to piece together the strange actions of her friends.

"You assumed wrong the other day. Caitlyn turned Albus down, not the other way around. He just thought it would be easier to let you believe that he was the one who hurt her."

"But how…?"

"It's Albus's business but…I know that him and Caitlyn owled almost nonstop this summer. She invited him to visit her in Italy and he asked her out there. All I know is that she said no; he never told me why."

"But they're—they still act like friends. I don't…"

Scorpius shrugged. "I just thought that you deserved to know the truth. Albus is really messed up about it and there's nothing more I can do to help. I just thought that you might be able to."

Rose was at a loss for words. She had a bad feeling that whatever was going on between Caitlyn and Albus had something to do with her. And even if it didn't, if she took the time to get involved she was going to be shoved in between the two best friends she had ever had.

"Thank you for telling me," she said softly.

"Albus wanted to but he didn't want to throw you into the middle of something. And please don't tell him I'm the one who told you. I know you don't believe me, but Albus seriously is my best mate and I wouldn't even be betraying his confidence like this unless I thought you'd be able to help him."

"You may not be much, Scorpius Malfoy, but you are a good friend."

"Thank you," he muttered, turning to face Rose. As they stared into each others' eyes, something about the moment just felt so right that Rose didn't shy away as he leaned over the few inches separating them and kissed her.

It was unlike the other kisses that they'd shared. This one was slow, gentle, and intoxicating in its own way. Rose's heart started hammering and she forgot how to breathe as she kissed him back.

It took her almost a minute to realize why there was a feeling of guilt in the pit of her stomach, but when she did she pulled away.

"That didn't happen," she gasped after a few seconds, still trying to get air into her lungs.

"No…didn't happen," he agreed, but his lips were still only inches from hers and the lustful look in his eyes weakened her resolve. Her lips were back on his within seconds and this time they kissed more fervently.

His hands held her tightly and pulled her onto his lap. The irony of them being on top of the Astronomy Tower was not lost on Rose, but she allowed herself to get lost in the kiss that she knew she was going to have to end eventually.

"Scorpius, stop," she said finally, disentangling her hands from his hair and lifting herself off of him so that she was once again sitting on the cold stone floor.

Scorpius did not argue, but looked as equally stunned as Rose felt. He had obviously not expected to come up here tonight and kiss her, a fact that made Rose respect him even against her will. "Sorry," he muttered, although neither of them quite knew what he was apologizing for.

"The first option—Option 1," Rose said after several minutes. Scorpius just looked at her curiously. "I choose the first option," she repeated. "We can't do this. We have to stop it."

"Rose—"

"No, listen to me. I don't know what me and you are. Certainly not friends, obviously not enemies. But Albus is your best mate and if he could see what we're doing…I won't help you cheat on Madeline. And that's all there is to it."

He nodded slowly. "I respect your decision. I can't promise I won't try anything, but I respect your decision." Rose tried to stifle a smile but she couldn't. Seeming to take her smile as a sign of good will, the couple sat in an amiable silence.

A cold wind blew across the tower, chilling Rose once again. Scorpius didn't even ask this time, he just shrugged out of his Slytherin robes and handed them to Rose. Not wanting to seem rude, she draped them over her.

They sat there together, just watching the stars. And even though Rose had just done everything possible to place some distance between herself and Scorpius, she couldn't help but feel that they were growing closer than ever.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

**A/N: I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter, so review and tell me what you think. Thanks so much for the response to the last chapter. Reviews seriously make me a very happy person!**

**Review!**

**SarahBeth.**


	5. Jealousy

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Jealousy_

As soon as Rose began to wake up, she knew something was off. The birds that were singing were much louder than usual and the sun was much brighter than the measly amount that normally came through the hangings of her four-poster bed. As she began to come more and more to her senses, other things soon announced themselves as being equally wrong. The hard surface beneath her was definitely not a bed and Rose had the distinct impression that someone else was lying only a few inches away from her.

As memories from her patrol the night before slowly came back to her, Rose opened her eyes and sat bolt upright in the same instant. As Scorpius's cloak fell off of her, her worst suspicions were confirmed: she had fallen asleep on top of the Astronomy Tower. More annoyed with herself than she had ever been, Rose turned to look at her sleeping partner-in-crime.

Scorpius was still in a sitting position, sleeping with his head resting against the hard wall of the alcove. Rose couldn't help but marvel at the fact that he still looked good after spending the night outside. Self-consciously, she ran her hands through her hair and was unsurprised to find that it had adopted the frizz that was customary after she had slept on it.

And even though Rose tried to convince herself that Scorpius Malfoy wasn't someone she needed to impress, there was a part of her that wanted him to think she looked just as beautiful as he did first thing in the morning. She threw her hair into the neatest ponytail she could manage before hitting Scorpius's shoulder roughly to wake him up. There was no reason to make him mistakenly think she was enjoying this.

He groaned and curled closer to the wall, trying to get away from her hand. Rose debated whether it would be nicer to let him open his eyes and discover their precarious situation for himself or to just tell him but after waiting several seconds for him to show some sign of life, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

"Malfoy, wake up!" she demanded.

At the sound of her voice, his eyes popped open so fast that it startled her. He stared at her for several seconds before turning to take in the rest of their surroundings. His face relaxed briefly as he put together what must have happened, but then the repercussions of the situation seemed to get to him and the worried look returned. He rubbed his eyes in an effort to wake himself up before turning back to Rose looking slightly dazed.

"When I heard your voice I thought for a second we had shagged and I'd forgotten it," he said sleepily.

"Well lucky for me, we didn't. I can't believe we fell asleep up here!"

"Neither can I," he agreed, squinting at her through the sun.

"There's no lasting damage, I suppose," she said, looking down at her watch. "It's only eight in the morning. With any luck we'll be able to get back to our dormitories and no one will ever know we were missing."

"Madeline's going to kill me!" Scorpius groaned, ignoring Rose completely.

"You're not going to tell her, are you!" she cried.

"No," Scorpius said, rolling his eyes. "But I'm going to have to tell her something. We had plans after patrol last night."

"We should probably go," Rose suggested after they sat in silence for a while, just staring at each other in disbelief.

"Probably so," he agreed with a mirthless laugh. He stood up and then held his hand out for Rose to take. She obliged and lifted herself up, handing Scorpius back his robes as she did so.

"On a different note," Scorpius said as they made their way back into the castle. "That's the first time I've ever spent a whole night with a girl."

Rose couldn't help but laugh. "I'm honored."

"You should be. You didn't even put out."

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

No one looked twice as Rose entered the Gryffindor Common Room, but that wasn't what she was worried about. If only she could get back into her bed before Caitlyn woke up…. Caitlyn was the only one that would have noticed Rose's absence anyway.

Rose pushed the door to her dormitory open with only a slight creak, but she needn't have worried. The noise wouldn't have woken Caitlyn up regardless because her bed was already empty. Rose groaned to herself and collapsed onto her bed. She was going to have some explaining to do.

Figuring that she might as well look presentable, Rose hopped into the shower and bathed quickly before putting on jeans and a shirt and heading down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

When she arrived, she was a bit surprised to find Caitlyn and Albus sitting across from each other and talking amiably. The information Scorpius had told her the night before about how Caitlyn had turned Albus down in Italy had changed the way Rose viewed her two best friends and she had just assumed that they would start acting accordingly. She had forgotten that they'd been perfectly friendly with each other ever since school started.

Rose watched them for a few seconds and noticed that Caitlyn was continually scanning the Great Hall as if she were looking for someone. And Rose knew exactly who that person was—she just hoped that Caitlyn hadn't mentioned Rose's absence to her cousin.

When Caitlyn finally saw Rose walking over, her face relaxed briefly before a smirk took its place. Now that she knew Rose hadn't been killed, she seemed to find the other possibilities highly amusing.

"Morning," she greeted as Rose took a seat next to Albus. Caitlyn raised her eyebrows questioningly, but didn't say anything else in front of Albus for which Rose was grateful. Although she really had nothing to be ashamed of, it wasn't a story she was overly eager to tell.

"Morning," Rose smiled sheepishly.

"You sure slept late," Albus noted.

"You have me doing midnight patrols," she pointed out.

Albus just shrugged. "Well someone has to do them."

Rose rolled her eyes and was about to retort when Caitlyn interrupted them. "I was just about to go watch the Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts. Anyone want to go with me?"

"Yeah, I want to see Owen," Rose agreed, grabbing a piece of toast to go.

"I'll go too," Albus shrugged. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

"Are we even allowed to go to a rival team's tryout?" Rose asked as they made their way across the lawn.

"They can't stop us," Caitlyn said. "Plus, I'm just here supporting my brother. Actually, I wouldn't be half surprised if Dad showed up too. But anyway, we're not spying."

"_I'm _spying," Albus corrected. Caitlyn tried to give him a reprimanding look, but she couldn't help but smile.

The Quidditch pitch was just as packed as it had been for the Gryffindor tryouts. As they entered they caught sight of Parker, Dylan, and Hugo sitting in some of the uppermost bleachers. Albus excused himself and went up to join his male teammates.

Rose and Caitlyn took seats a little farther down and busied themselves trying to find Owen.

"There he is," Caitlyn said, pointing to the sidelines where all of the Keeper hopefuls were lounging. "OWEN!"

Owen looked around slowly. He finally spotted Rose and Caitlyn and gave them both a half-hearted wave, clearly embarrassed.

"There's no way he won't make it," Rose said, trying to take the attention away from what she knew Caitlyn was about to bring up.

"Mhm," she agreed. "So where were you last night?"

"Can we not talk about this?"

"No, we're definitely going to talk about this," Caitlyn smiled. "Where were you?"

"I was…with Albus!" she tried.

"You were with me when?" he asked, coming from behind her to sit with them once more.

"Last night?" Caitlyn asked him curiously.

"She wasn't with me," Albus shrugged, a smirk covering his face as a thought occurred to him. "And you know who else was mysteriously missing last night?"

"I was in the hospital wing!" Rose cried desperately.

"Overnight?" Caitlyn asked doubtfully.

"She was giving me an experimental potion for cramps!"

"Do you honestly think that pulling the 'cramps' card is going to make me back down?" Albus asked incredulously.

"If it was Caitlyn saying that, you would!" Albus didn't even blush.

"Caitlyn's not related to me," he pointed out. "Rose, were you with Scorpius last night?" His voice was stern but Rose knew that it was nothing compared to what it would be if he actually thought they had done more than just fall asleep.

"We fell asleep on top of the Astronomy Tower," she moaned, trying to keep her voice down. Caitlyn and Albus actually started laughing. "I swear that's all! Even I wouldn't sink low enough to stay overnight with him!"

"That is too funny, Rose," Albus laughed. "So I take it you two are getting along okay?"

"We just keep our distance," she lied smoothly. Caitlyn, however, didn't seem to completely buy her lie. She was still looking at Rose with narrowed, thoughtful eyes.

Albus and Caitlyn talked straight through the tryouts. Rose watched them more than the Quidditch. For the first time, she was able to notice how their relationship had changed from the previous year.

During their sixth year at Hogwarts, Rose had been the centerpiece to Albus and Caitlyn'srelationship. They had only been around each other, excluding Quidditch practices, when Rose was with them. Today, however, they were carrying on conversations that Rose had no say in and they were referencing things that Rose hadn't been a part of. If Scorpius had been telling the truth—and it seemed like he had—then they had even spent a little time together in Italy which was something even Rose had not done with her friend.

But somehow Rose couldn't be jealous of them. She didn't know all of the details of what had happened over the summer, but she was determined to find out because the look of pure happiness on Albus's face as he talked to Caitlyn was something that she had never seen before and something that she didn't want to disappear anytime soon.

When it was finally time for Owen's tryout, Rose was utterly mesmerized by his talent. She'd been watching him play for years now and she knew that he was more amazing than any other student at Hogwarts but she had never really taken the time to admire him. Somewhere along the way, Owen had grown up.

He was, of course, named Ravenclaw Keeper soon afterwards.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

Caitlyn and Rose were sitting in the common room later in the week when Albus came in to join them. He had been spending a lot more time in the Gryffindor common room lately and although he claimed it was because Scorpius and Madeline were always using the Head's common room, Rose thought Caitlyn might have more to do with it.

"Are you two interested in sneaking out tonight by any chance?" he asked.

Rose looked up at him curiously. "Out where, Head Boy?" she asked.

"The Dragon's Breath—that club in Hogsmeade. A bunch of seventh years are going there tonight to celebrate the start of a new term and all that. So what do you say?"

"We have Quidditch practice tonight," Caitlyn muttered. Albus just looked at her pleadingly. "I'll go if Rose goes," she agreed.

"You don't just want to go for me?" Albus asked, pouting in a way that even Rose couldn't mistake for something other than flirting.

"Tempting, but no. Rose?"

"I'll go," she shrugged. "But I'm making no promise as to how long I'll stay."

"That's all I'm asking," Albus grinned. "See you tonight. And you too, Caitlyn." He got up and headed for the portrait hole, but his eyes didn't leave Caitlyn's until he was nearly out of the room. When he was finally gone Caitlyn turned back to her homework, a huge smile on her face.

Figuring that the time had come to finally bring up the issue, Rose put her quill down gently and turned to Caitlyn.

"Am I imagining things or was Albus just flirting with you?"

Caitlyn looked up, startled by the question. "Are you daft?" she laughed. "You're imagining things." If Rose didn't know better, she would have simply let the question drop. Caitlyn was such a convincing liar that Rose almost believed her.

"I don't know," Rose mused, shaking her head. "I've never seen him act this way. I think he might have a little crush on you."

"Rose," Caitlyn said patronizingly, a small smile of amusement on her face, "I know I had a breakdown last week, but you really don't have to try and convince me that Albus likes me in order to make me feel better."

"That's not what I was trying to do!" Rose insisted. Caitlyn just grinned and turned back to her essay. "But just for entertainment purposes, if he asked you out what would you say?"

She threw her head down onto the table in frustration, but when she sat back up she was still smiling. "Why all the questions?" she asked. Rose shrugged. "Well just for entertainment, if Albus asked me out I would…I don't know, Rose. I don't want to think about it."

"Albus is hot," Rose said in a last attempt to get Caitlyn to talk. Caitlyn looked at her as if she was crazy and Rose couldn't help but laugh at the words that had just come out of her mouth. "Okay, shutting up," she said. Caitlyn chuckled and turned back to her essay once more.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

When they arrived at the Dragon's Breath it was already crowded. The Dragon's Breath was the only over-seventeen club in Hogsmeade that didn't cause problems when a bunch of students walked in; therefore, it brought in good business during the school year. Rose, who wasn't a fan of loud music and large groups in the first place, immediately started questioning her own sanity for coming here. Caitlyn looked equally as lost. She was about as fond of parties as Rose.

"There's a table over there," Rose shouted as they walked in. Nodding eagerly at the thought of sitting down, Caitlyn hurried after Rose.

"What are we doing here?" Caitlyn asked after several minutes of them just sitting there doing nothing. "This is so not our thing, Rosie!"

People were dancing wildly on the floor and the very thought of even stepping foot out there terrified Rose a little bit. She had half a mind to suggest that they leave when Albus ambled over, holding three firewhiskeys in his hands.

"You finally made it!" he greeted, handing a drink each to Caitlyn and Rose. "Crazy, huh?"

"Crazy," Rose agreed, taking a huge gulp of her alcohol.

"The craziest," Caitlyn added humorlessly.

"Do you want to dance with me?" Albus asked her without missing a beat. Rose paused mid-sip and as she took in the look on Caitlyn's face, it was the first time that she was able to know for certain that something had gone on between the couple over the summer. The torn look on Caitlyn's face was heart-breaking and Rose wanted to know more than anything what was torturing her so much.

Caitlyn opened her mouth to reply, but something else caught her attention and she changed her words. "Holy shit," she muttered, glancing towards the door. Rose looked in the direction of her gaze and almost started laughing when she saw Owen walk through the door with the rest of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. "He is definitely _not_ seventeen," she groaned.

Seeming to sense her disapproval, Owen spotted his sister through the crowd and made his way over to her after excusing himself from his friends. "Fancy seeing you here," he smiled. "I was under the impression that you didn't know how to have fun. Hello, Rose. Albus."

They both nodded their greetings, Albus looking slightly annoyed that Caitlyn's attention was now otherwise detained.

"Mum and Dad would kill you!" Caitlyn groaned.

"Dad would be more likely to kill you for being out in a club with a bunch of randy men than me," he countered. Caitlyn just shook her head, but Owen knew he had won.

"Al!" a voice called, and through the crowd walked Scorpius Malfoy hand-in-hand with Madeline Stewart. Rose had to force herself to look away and just hoped that she wasn't blushing. The memory of the kiss that she had shared with Scorpius on top of the Astronomy Tower still haunted her.

As Scorpius came over and started chatting amiably with Albus, Rose glanced around the room in order to give her something to do besides pay attention to Malfoy and was rather amused to find Dylan Stewart watching Scorpius with almost as much contempt as she would like to. She looked around for Parker because he was rarely far from Dylan, but couldn't find him. Therefore, it took her by surprise when she looked up and saw that he was standing not a few feet away from her, talking to Caitlyn.

"Do you want to dance?" she heard Parker ask.

"Uh…" Caitlyn said warily, throwing a pleading glance at Rose. All Rose knew how to do was shrug, but she was hyper-aware of the fact that Albus and Scorpius's conversation had just come to a crashing halt.

"I won't take no for an answer," he added, pulling her out of her seat. Still looking as shocked as Rose had ever seen her, Caitlyn made her way onto the dance floor.

"Well, that's interesting," Owen muttered.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Just because you don't think Caitlyn's attractive doesn't mean no one does."

"I never said I didn't think my sister was attractive!" Owen laughed. "I'm just not a fan of Parker Thomas."

"And who would you prefer?"

Owen looked at Albus pointedly, making his meaning perfectly clear. When Rose turned to look at Albus who had resumed his conversation with Scorpius, she was unsurprised to find that his eyes were on Caitlyn. Looking out onto the busy dance floor, Rose was equally surprised to see that Caitlyn actually seemed to be enjoying herself.

"So I'm not blind?" Rose asked. "Something _is_ going on between them?"

"She still hasn't told you?" he asked, looking stunned. Rose shook her head. "Well, judging by the look on Albus's face I don't think she's going to be able to keep it from you for much longer." And sure enough, Albus looked livid.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Affairs of the heart. Something even I don't understand."

"Speaking of which, where _is_ your girlfriend?" Rose laughed.

Owen shrugged. "In her dormitory, I assume."

"You didn't invite her?" Rose laughed.

"Didn't feel it was necessary," he smirked.

"Well Mr. Wood, you are quite the catch," Rose joked.

"So, are you going to share that with me?" Owen asked, pointing to Rose's firewhiskey. He seemed desperate to get off of the subject of his girlfriend. "I'm too young to get one for myself."

"Take it," Rose said, pushing it towards him. He raised the glass to her before bringing it to his lips. Rose was distracted at that moment, however, by Albus suddenly getting out of his chair and marching onto the dance floor. Scorpius had been in the middle of a story by the look of surprise on his face.

Not wanting to address Scorpius in public, Rose turned to Madeline. "Madeline, what's he doing?"

She simply shrugged, but Scorpius looked rather proud as he answered, "Something stupid."

All four people remaining at the table watched with bated breath as Albus approached Caitlyn and Parker on the dance floor. Although Rose half expected him to throw a punch, he very calmly held his hand out to Caitlyn and it was obvious that he had asked to cut in. Parker looked utterly appalled as Caitlyn, at a complete loss judging by the look on her face, gently placed her hand in his.

"This may not be good," Rose mused.

"You're seriously going to play the over-protective cousin card?" Scorpius asked, turning to her. Madeline and Owen both look shocked by the sudden exchange.

"I'm not talking about them," she said, gesturing to Albus and Caitlyn who were dancing together happily. "I'm talking about _him_," she said, pointing to Parker who looked just as angry as Albus had seconds before.

"Maybe Ravenclaw _will_ have a chance at the Cup this year if my sister's going to pit her own teammates against each other," Owen noted.

"Amen to that," Scorpius agreed, raising his glass. Rose rolled her eyes.

"If you think Caitlyn would ever do something that would damage her chances at the Quidditch Cup, then you're crazy!"

"I so don't want to be talking about Quidditch right now," Owen said, standing up from his seat and downing the rest of Rose's firewhiskey in one swallow. "Come on, Rosie. Let's dance." Before Rose could argue that she was about as good at dancing as the Giant Squid, Owen took her by the hand and dragged her onto the floor.

"This is not a good idea," Rose laughed as he spun her out and back into his arms.

"Just follow my lead," he smiled, spinning her once more so that they were now facing each other. "I'm a pretty decent dancer if I do say so myself."

Decent was not the word to explain it. As Rose looked around the room a little self-consciously, she found that her and Owen were one of the only couples actually dancing instead of just grinding their bodies against each other.

"Where did you learn how to dance like this?" Rose asked, turning her attention to Owen.

"I can't even begin to count the number of balls my grandparents have forced me to go to," he grimaced.

"I always just skip the ones at the Potter house," Rose said guiltily.

"Well luckily you've got a good teacher," Owen smiled and pulled Rose to him even closer.

"Your sister's going to kill us if she sees this," Rose said, trying to stifle a laugh in Owen's shoulder.

"I think she's sufficiently distracted," Owen retorted.

"Did he really come to Italy?" she asked.

"Yeah. But talk to _her_ about it, Rose. She needs someone to talk to because I'm getting tired of hearing about it."

"If she wanted to talk, wouldn't she have told me before now?"

Rose felt Owen shrug as a slow song finally played. The softer music was a welcome change to Rose's ears.

"So, is it bad if I want to kiss you right now?" he asked a few seconds later. Rose laughed and she shoved him away playfully. He simply grabbed her arm and pulled her back in.

He looked down at her with a classic puppy dog pout on his face. Rose looked up at him, determined not to cave. The ironic truth was that they had been here before. Rose and Owen were really close and although she didn't wan to date him, Rose couldn't deny that the thought of snogging him was intriguing.

Slowly, Rose shook her head and Owen groaned. "It's going to happen one day," he said finally.

"You don't have to convince me," Rose agreed. Once the song ended, they pulled apart. After looking over her shoulder to make sure that Caitlyn was still distracted by Albus, she turned to Owen and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Not exactly what I had in mind," he smiled.

Rose rolled her eyes. "Good night, Owen," she laughed. "I'm going back to the castle." He nodded and after giving her a quick hug, they went their separate ways.

She thought about going to tell Caitlyn where she was going, but then thought better of it. She looked too happy to be interrupted right now. If she got worried, Owen would tell her where Rose had gone. Instead, Rose turned back to the table where her bag was still sitting. She knew it wasn't exactly a smart idea to go to a club with a purse, but it was a bad habit. She gratefully noticed that her purse was still sitting there and made her way over. Only after she had pushed her way through the dance floor did she realize that the table wasn't empty.

Scorpius had sat down in her vacated seat with Madeline on his lap and he was snogging her wildly. Rose's heart burned with jealousy even though she knew that he wasn't hers to be jealous of. She couldn't tear her eyes away from them for several seconds and was thoroughly mesmerized by the way Scorpius was kissing Madeline. She couldn't help but wonder if he kissed her the exact same way or if it meant something different to him.

Shaking these thoughts away, Rose walked to the table and reached over the couple to grab her purse. Sensing someone's presence, they broke apart. "Sorry," Rose apologized and immediately regretted it. Why was she apologizing for making them stop snogging?

"Are you leaving already?" Madeline asked, trying to regain some of her lost dignity.

"Yeah, this is getting pretty boring," Rose said and left without another word.

She stepped out of the Dragon's Breath and as soon as the door shut behind her, she felt better. The music immediately stopped and although she became hyper-aware of a pounding headache, the nice summer breeze made her feel relaxed and calm. Screw Scorpius Malfoy—she could do so much better than him!

That feeling only lasted until the door to the club opened behind her. She was only half way through turning around to see who had disturbed her alone time when the person grabbed her by the elbow and began pulling her down the alley next to the club. Scorpius's platinum blond hair made him impossible not to recognize.

"What are you doing?" she groaned. Scorpius did not reply, but kept walking further down the alleyway. He stopped about half way down. Rose jerked her arm out of his hand and turned to face him. They continued standing in silence, but Rose was shocked by the look of determination on his face. "What?"

At the sound of her voice Scorpius lunged forward, took Rose's face in both of his hands, and kissed her passionately. She was so stunned and so enamored by the fervor in his kiss that she kissed him back. Scorpius pushed her gently up against the brick wall behind them, his eager response making it perfectly clear that he had not expected her to kiss him back.

As Scorpius's lips left her mouth and moved to her neck, it gave her head a chance to clear so that by the time he was kissing her lips again, she was thoroughly pissed at him for kissing her after she had told him not a week before that she was through. Not to mention the fact that he had been kissing someone else only a minute ago.

She pushed him away gently, but Scorpius just came back kissing harder. She tried once more to similar results. Not knowing what else to do, she raised her right hand and slapped him hard on the face.

Scorpius pulled away, a look mixed with anger and amusement etched on his face. "You could have just asked me to stop," he noted, moving his jaw back and forth, judging the extent of her damage.

"I couldn't really remember how to speak," she answered honestly. Apparently now she was having trouble remembering how to keep her mouth closed.

Scorpius smirked, looking incredibly smug. "So, Owen Wood?" he asked. "Really?"

"Jealous?"

"Yes," he answered simply. Rose cocked one of her eyebrows in surprise. Scorpius Malfoy was jealous of Owen because of Rose? The whole situation was bizarre.

"That still doesn't give you the right to kiss me in dark alleyways."

"You don't understand," he muttered. "You don't understand!" he repeated manically, turning away from her and burying his hands in his hair; it looked like he was trying to pull it out. He calmed down and turned back to face her. "You don't understand that I would rather snog you than date Madeline. Just tell me to break up with her, and I will."

"Just like that?" Rose asked, and she had to admit that the thought of having that kind of control over his and Madeline's relationship was enticing. In a perfect world, Rose would be able to snog Scorpius whenever she wanted. And the fact that that's what she wanted frightened her. Scorpius Malfoy was not the type of person she needed to become dependent on.

"Just like that," he agreed.

"Tell me this, Malfoy. Was I the only person you cheated on Madeline with?"

"You mean was I cheating on _you_?" he clarified. Rose didn't feel the need to rephrase her question. "No, I wasn't. There was no one else, Rose."

"Rose?" she asked with a smile. Scorpius rolled his eyes at his own slip up. Rose, however, was just glad he'd been the first one to use her first name. She'd been on the verge of calling him Scorpius for a while now.

"I'm trying it out to see how I like it," he said.

"Well then, Scorpius," she said, leaning towards him seductively. He eagerly mirrored her movements. She waited to finish her sentence until his lips were hovering right above hers. "You've underestimated me. I'm not going to do your dirty work for you. If you break up with Madeline, it's going to be your own decision. And until then, _this_ isn't happening."

And without another word she headed back to Hogwarts, her head pounding once more.

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**


	6. New Beginnings

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_New Beginnings_

Although Rose wanted nothing more than to sleep and forget her confrontation with Scorpius, a sense of curiosity kept her awake. Caitlyn would surely be returning from Hogsmeade soon and tonight Rose wasn't going to let her get away with lying. Caitlyn was her best friend and Rose wanted to know the truth about what was (or wasn't) going on between her and Albus.

Caitlyn was back within an hour and she walked through the door, grinning wildly. Upon seeing Rose still awake and staring at her, her expression changed.

"You're still up," Caitlyn noted in a whisper.

"They're not here," Rose said at a normal volume, referring to their roommates. "Still in Hogsmeade, I expect."

"Sylvia was snogging Aaron Flint when I left," Caitlyn laughed, making her way over to her own four-poster bed.

"You're kidding!" Rose chuckled. "How much has she had to drink?"

"Apparently more than the recommended amount," Caitlyn answered pulling her shirt over her head so that she could change into pajamas.

"This could come in use," Rose mused. "It sounds like blackmail material if we should ever need to use it."

"Blackmail!" Caitlyn laughed derisively. "I'm not settling for blackmail; it sounds like payback to me. No way is she ever going to live this down after all the hell she's put me through for the past seven years." Caitlyn was still smiling as she crawled into bed.

"You and Albus looked like you were having fun tonight," Rose hinted casually. The same idiotic grin reappeared on Caitlyn's face and she buried her head in her hands to hide the blush. "Cate, you can't keep me in the dark forever."

"I lied to you," she admitted a minute later, sitting up in bed and turning to face Rose. Rose mirrored her actions and they sat facing each other across the dimly lit room. Caitlyn was still smiling. "Albus _is_ flirting with me."

"You don't say!" Rose intoned sarcastically.

"We've been talking a lot lately. It started this summer and just never stopped," she shrugged. "And he kind of came to visit me in Italy," she added hastily with a wince as if expecting Rose to blow up about the fact that Albus was invited to Italy and she wasn't.

"I know," Rose said simply. Caitlyn looked at her curiously. "Scorpius told me."

A look of confusion crossed Caitlyn's features for the briefest instant but then she was grinning once more. "He asked me out there. We were walking across the Ponte Vecchio and he just asked me," she said excitedly and Rose couldn't help but smile. Caitlyn continued, her face falling, "And I told him no."

"I know," Rose repeated somberly. Caitlyn was now beginning to look a little bit depressed that she wasn't the first to tell Rose this information.

"But I really, _really_ like him," she admitted finally, her face growing redder and redder by the second.

"I know that too," Rose smiled.

"Who told you _that_?" Caitlyn demanded angrily. "Owen?"

"No. The look on your face tonight told me that quite clearly." Caitlyn smiled giddily once more. "But I'm confused, Caitlyn," Rose admitted. "If you feel this strongly about him, then why tell him no? He's obviously head over heels in love with you!"

Her face darkened dangerously and a fingernail automatically made its way to her mouth in order to be chewed on. She sat there in silence and Rose just waited patiently. She had a feeling that she knew what was coming. "Please don't take this the wrong way," Caitlyn finally said, removing her fingernail from between her teeth. "But I couldn't tell him yes because of you. I mean, it's not the only reason but—"

"How could I not take that the wrong way?" Rose cried. "Cate, you know me! Why would I care whether you date Albus? As much as it kills me to admit it, he's one of the good guys. I approve!"

"It's not that," Caitlyn whined. "It's…what if we break up? You would have to—"

"Okay number one, never start a relationship by thinking about what will happen at the end of it. And number two, if you think you and Albus could ever force me to choose sides, then you're both daft! I love you both; I respect you both; and I'm a big girl—I can handle my own damn problems!"

"It's not just that either," Caitlyn said after a few seconds of silence. "Rose, my experience with guys is nonexistent!"

"That's no excuse!" Rose laughed. "My experience with guys centers around Spencer Montgomery who half of the school thought was gay before he dated me!" She conveniently left out the whole Scorpius thing. "And it's not like Albus would care about that. I think your inexperience is probably a turn on!"

Caitlyn shook her head once more, and Rose could tell that she didn't feel like her point was being conveyed correctly. "That's not what I mean. Have you ever heard of someone marrying their first love, Rose?" she asked doubtfully.

"Yes," she answered immediately. "My parents."

Caitlyn looked at her, obviously not expecting that response. "So they never even snogged anyone else?" she asked.

"Well, not exactly," Rose laughed. "But there was never anyone else for them. They've loved each other ever since they met their first year. It can happen. Caitlyn smiled slightly. "Is that what this is about? You're scared that if your first kiss is with Albus, then you two won't end up together? That you'll jinx it somehow?"

"Is that really so stupid?" Caitlyn asked desperately. "The chances of me marrying the first guy that I kiss are slim. But I want Albus to be that guy—and I know that's ridiculous, so you don't have to tell me."

"You like him _that_ much? Caitlyn, how long have you felt this way?"

"A long time, Rosie. A really long time."

"Everyone wants their first love to be their last. It doesn't always happen but if it's meant to be, then things will work out in the end. If you're going to worry about anything, you need to worry about guarding your heart. I love Albus, but he's made mistakes. You know he has."

"I can forgive him for those," Caitlyn shrugged

Rose nodded. "So, what are you going to do?" she said after several minutes of silence.

"I still don't know."

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

When Rose was forced to wake up the next morning after only three hours of sleep, she promised herself that she was never going to leave Hogwarts after curfew again. She wished that she was one of those students who could get the grades without going to class, but she wasn't confident enough in her abilities to test it. It was Friday and classes ended at noon, but oddly enough that didn't make her feel any better as she climbed out of bed.

Caitlyn was equally sluggish but by some miracle they managed to make it to breakfast on time. Scanning the Great Hall, it became obvious that the majority of the seventh years were not present. Rose had the nagging impression that their classes were going to be slightly emptier today.

"We're idiots," Caitlyn muttered over her cup of coffee. Rose just nodded. "So, I didn't even ask how _your_ night was."

"Eh," Rose groaned, but feeling that she owed Caitlyn a little bit of honesty, she added, "Owen almost snogged me."

"I almost snogged your cousin, so I guess we're even," she chuckled. "Wait, isn't Owen still dating what's-her-name?"

Rose shrugged. "He may have mentioned that." Caitlyn was still giggling when Albus sat down beside her.

"Does anyone else have a bloody hangover?" he asked.

"Owen drank my firewhiskey," Rose shrugged.

"And I'm pretty sure that you drank mine," Caitlyn told him.

"Well, that _would _explain the headache," Albus smiled weakly. He reached for the coffee just as the tables cleared. He just stared at the table in shock for several seconds before turning to Rose with an incredulous look on his face. "Why me?"

"Here," Caitlyn smiled, sliding the rest of her coffee to him across the table. He sipped it gratefully.

"I'm going to be late for Ancient Runes," Rose said after a few seconds of watching Caitlyn watch Albus. "I'll see you two at lunch." They barely acknowledged her as she walked away.

As had become tradition in Ancient Runes, Rose was the last one to arrive. No one even looked up as she entered; they were already busy working on their independent study projects that Professor Vector had assigned them last class. Sighing at the monotony of it all, she took her seat next to Madeline.

"'Morning," she greeted. Madeline just nodded as she bent over her Runes Translation. Looking over at her, Rose found that Madeline looked just as tired as she felt. Although it would mean more homework, Rose put her quill on the desk and laid her head down on her arms. She felt that she should be exempt from class after the night she had. Madeline looked over at her curiously.

"There's no point in me trying to do this this morning," Rose shrugged. "I can barely understand English right now—much less Runes."

"Amen to that," Madeline said, setting her quill down also. "I didn't sleep at all last night."

"Fun night with Scorpius?" Rose forced herself to ask. Even though she tried to hide it, her tone sounded bitter.

"Not exactly," Madeline muttered and for the first time, Rose looked up and noticed that her eyes were rimmed with red. She had been crying. "We broke up."

"Oh my God," Rose said loudly after she had time to digest that information. Her stomach suddenly lurched and she wanted more than anything to run out of the room, but she refrained. Scorpius Malfoy actually broke up with Madeline Stewart? Rose didn't think she could form words. She had never been more surprised by anything in her life, but thankfully Madeline misinterpreted her shock as some form of sympathy. "Madeline, I'm so sorry!" she added guiltily.

"It was just so bizarre!" Madeline said, obviously thrilled to have someone to speak to. Rose wasn't sure she had been hanging out with her other girlfriends since she started dating Scorpius. "Things were going perfectly fine. After the club, we went back to my dorm and were right about to shag when he just stopped me and said he couldn't do this anymore. He said he didn't love me and that I deserved better."

"You're kidding, right?" Rose asked disbelievingly. The thought of Scorpius Malfoy showing any remorse at all was simply unbelievable.

Madeline shook her head. "He just kept apologizing."

"He's a jerk, Madeline," Rose finally said, trying to convince herself also.

"I wish I could tell myself that, but he's not. Not really." She countered. "And at least he didn't cheat on me, right?" she added, trying to insert some humor into the situation.

Rose chuckled humorlessly, just grateful that Madeline had more important things on her mind at that moment. "Yeah, there's that."

For the rest of Ancient Runes, Madeline could not be quieted. She walked Rose through all of the aspects of her and Scorpius's relationship that she was now calling into question. Why had he agreed to go out with her in the first place? Was it something she had done that had pushed him away? Was she just bad at sex?—she'd only had one partner before Malfoy.

And every time, Rose assured her that Scorpius was the one at fault. That he was a cad and that Madeline deserved much better. Every word that she said tore through Rose like a knife and she accepted this as her punishment for helping Scorpius cheat on Madeline. She deserved this pain.

But even through the pain, Rose couldn't still her racing thoughts. Scorpius had broken up with Madeline! And if he had meant what he had said the night before, he was doing it so that Rose would agree to snog him without any reservations.

Rose was suddenly excited at the prospect of meeting Scorpius for rounds that night, but she was wary also. What was going on between them? They'd never actually addressed what their relationship was and Rose was beginning to worry that he was looking for more from her than she was willing to give: sex. If he wasn't getting it from Madeline, he was going to get it from somewhere else—she had no doubt about that.

But what if he was looking for a real relationship? Did she want to _date_ Scorpius Malfoy?

Although she didn't know the answer to that question, a fire was already burning in the pit of her stomach. She wanted Scorpius desperately at that moment. She wanted to feel him against her and know that there was absolutely nothing standing between them. She felt more free than she had since her first day of school and an overwhlming urge came over her to tell someone about it all.

As soon as the bell rang signaling the end of class, Rose excused herself quickly. It was only when she was almost to the Gryffindor Common Room that she realized she had no one to talk to. Albus was out of the question for obvious reasons and Rose still didn't want to entrust Caitlyn with this information. Not until she was sure that this wasn't going to be something Caitlyn could use to mock her for the rest of her life.

Instead, Rose changed her course and began to slowly make her way down to the greenhouses. She had a distinct feeling that this Herbology class was going to be a disaster and not only because it would be the first time she'd see Scorpius since their episode the night before. It was also the first time that Madeline and he would be in the same room since their breakup. And to make things even more fun, Dylan Stewart would be there to witness the whole ordeal.

As Rose had half expected, the class was emptier than usual because a vast majority of the seventh years were skipping due to their escapades the night before. The students present were all looking incredibly worn out with the exception of the few who hadn't attended or hadn't been invited to the Dragon's Breath.

Professor Longbottom took one look at the weary class and shook his head forlornly. "Let's take a study day, then. Work on whatever you want, but stay in this greenhouse. Do you hear me, Mr. Corner? And I need about four of you to trim some of my Fanged Geraniums—fifty points to each person that helps."

No one looked eager to volunteer. "I'll help you, Professor," Rose consented, not really caring about the points. Professor Longbottom was a favorite of hers and she didn't really have anything better to do.

"Me too," Albus sighed. Caitlyn raised her hand also.

"I guess I'm the fourth," Scorpius muttered, making his way over to the trio.

"Good," Neville said, pointing them to the back of the greenhouse. "Be careful with the one on the left—very temperamental." Without further instructions, he left them to it.

"Why the hell did you volunteer to trim Fanged Geraniums?" Scorpius asked incredulously as they made their way to the back.

"Why the hell did _you_?" Rose countered, picking up a jar of live bugs to distract the plant with.

"Surely you've heard by now," Albus smirked. "Scorpius dumped Madeline last night. And I'm sure a few semi-lethal bites are much preferable to being cried at for an hour."

"I'm glad you're finding this amusing, but I don't think Maddie's really the crying type," Scorpius muttered. "I'm more worried about her brother. I try to stay away from girls with overprotective brothers for this very reason."

"How chivalrous of you," Rose noted.

"Okay, me and Caitlyn are going to take this one," Albus said, interrupting the couple. "And you two take the temperamental one over there."

"C'mon!" Scorpius groaned. "Let me work with you—I already have to patrol with her tonight!"

"Deal with it," Albus said. As soon as his back was turned, Scorpius smiled smugly at Rose.

"He doesn't suspect a thing," Scorpius said happily.

"Good," Rose said. "And can we keep it that way, please?"

"Whatever you want, Princess." They made their way over to the plant and each grabbed a pair of gloves. "Do you want to trim it or feed it?" he asked once they were both properly attired.

Rose looked at Scorpius and then at the bugs in her hand. "I guess I'll feed it," she said doubtfully.

"You sure about that?" he smirked, noting the look of disgust on her face.

"Yes, I'm sure!" she retorted stiffly.

Scorpius shrugged doubtfully, but picked up the shears and got ready. There would only be a small window of opportunity between when Rose dropped a bug in the plants mouth and when the Geranium turned on the person cutting it apart.

Rose removed the lid of the jar and set it on the table. It was only as she looked into its depths at all of the crawling, slithering insects that she remembered how much she hated bugs. Even at seventeen years of age, she still screamed at the sight of spiders.

"Any day now," Scorpius muttered, smirking.

Rose gritted her teeth and took a deep breath before plunging her hand into the jar. She grabbed the first bug she could get her fingers around, but as soon as she felt its legs between her fingers, she lost it. Letting out a scream that attracted the attention of the whole room, she quickly released the bug and the jar in the same instant. The jar came crashing to the floor and shattered, sending bugs flying everywhere.

Scorpius, who seemed to have been expecting something like that to occur, hastily cried, "_Reparo_!" The jar sprang back together and the room was briefly filled with laughter before everyone went back to their own work.

"Maybe we should switch jobs," Scorpius suggested with a smile. Rose rolled her eyes, but happily obliged.

She picked up the shears and waited. Scorpius reached into the jar and pulled out some sort of long, dangly bug that Rose didn't recognize. He shoved it in front of Rose's face causing her to jump back.

"You are so immature!" she cried, pushing his hand away. Scorpius just laughed and dropped the bug into the Geranium's mouth. Rose cut away as much as she could, but at any sign of movement from the plant she would spring back. She wasn't very good with nature and Scorpius found it quite hilarious. They might not make good time, but at least they were entertained.

"So you broke up with Madeline?" Rose asked as they began the entire process over again.

"Obviously, Weasley. I thought you were smarter than that."

"Back to surnames, are we?"

"When your cousin's in the room, yes," Scorpius laughed.

"Well, I think it goes without saying that we need to talk."

"What is it with you girls and the talking? Hasn't anyone ever told you that actions speak louder than words?"

"Hasn't anyone ever told you that you're never going to get a girl to shag you if you don't actually speak to her?"

"I've been shagging girls for ages without talking to them—I think your information is faulty." He grinned at her playfully and she couldn't help but grin back.

"Maybe we shouldn't be talking right now," Rose said, after looking over his shoulder to where Madeline was staring at them. "Madeline's looking this way."

"No way in hell would she suspect I have a thing for you."

"Flattering. You owe me, by the way. I just sat through an entire Ancient Runes class listening to her gripe about your relationship."

"And what did she say about me?" Scorpius asked curiously.

"That you're bloody horrible in bed," Rose replied.

"That's a lie!" Scorpius cried, outraged.

"Of course it is," she answered sarcastically. "You know, sometimes _small_ problems can be easily fixed. There are charms for that." Scorpius was growing more frustrated by the second.

"I am not horrible in bed and I am not small by any definition of the word. I can prove it tonight if you'd like!"

"No need to over-exert yourself," Rose laughed.

"You're bloody annoying, do you know that?" Scorpius smiled.

"But _I_ at least am good in bed."

Scorpius retorted by throwing a handful of bugs at her.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

Rose was the first to arrive in the Entrance Hall for patrols once again; Scorpius had yet to arrive before her, not even once. She sat uncomfortably on the floor and followed her watch closely as it ticked off the ten o'clock hour. She began smirking when she heard Scorpius's footsteps at 10:01.

"You're late," Rose said as he rounded the corner.

"Forgive me, oh Great One," he said, rolling his eyes as he helped her off of the ground. "But I fell asleep in the Heads' Common Room. Albus was kind enough to wake me up for patrols. I'm just so—bloody—tired," he finished through a yawn.

"You're still hanging out in the Heads' Common Room?" she asked as they began to make their way to the Hufflepuff corridor by the kitchens.

"I'm not one of those guys who are shy around their exes," he shrugged. "I have way too many. And the Heads' dorms are a really nice place to take a nap."

When they finally reached the deserted corridor, both of them took a seat on the floor simultaneously as if they could sense the other's thoughts. They had no intention of patrolling that night.

"So, you actually broke up with Madeline _before_ having sex with her?" Rose quipped.

"Believe it or not, I do have a sense of common decency."

"You're right; I don't believe it."

He sighed deeply. "I wasn't planning on breaking up with her but all I could think about was you. And I was very drunk," he added hastily. "So, I just figured I'd get it over with. Ideally you would come crawling back to me, but if you're as stubborn as Albus that could take weeks."

"Months," Rose corrected.

"Fine, months. Whatever."

"So, you broke up with Madeline for me?" Rose clarified.

"You're going to make me say it?"

"I need you to admit it to yourself."

Scorpius sighed deeply. "I broke up with her for you, Rose Weasley." There was a long pause before, "You know this doesn't mean we're dating, right?"

"Well considering we just started using each other's proper names last night, I figured as much," she joked but then suddenly grew serious. "But then what does that make us?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I have no clue but I dumped Madeline so that I could snog you, so there better be some snogging involved or I'm going to be pissed!"

"Snogging will definitely be involved," Rose agreed.

"Well that's it then, isn't it? I mean, if we're not dating—"

"And we're not exactly friends either—" Rose added

"Then we're just…snogging?"

"Snogging," Rose agreed.

"For now," Scorpius added. "Because I'm not about to eliminate the possibility of a nice shag every now and then."

"Of course you're not," Rose said, trying to hide a smile. Scorpius started laughing. "What's so funny?"

"Never in a million years did I think I would ever be having this conversation with you, Rose."

"And when did you change your mind about that?"

"At the concert, I guess," Scorpius shrugged. "It's not like I never entertained the idea, but if we're being honest I always thought if I snogged one of Albus's relatives, it was going to be Lily."

Rose rolled her eyes. Of course he would imagine himself with the younger, skinnier, prettier Lily Potter. Not that Rose didn't like her cousin, but it was completely unfair that her hair was a nice shade of auburn while Rose was sporting a head of fire.

"I didn't say that to make you mad," Scorpius amended hastily. "You're a beautiful girl, Rose. And incredibly intriguing. And maybe I' m just saying this because I'm operating on about five hours of sleep, but you're the only girl I've ever met that I actually don't mind talking to." He shrugged casually. "Although right about now I really am wishing you'd stop and just kiss me already. Scorpius has been a good boy."

Rose rolled her eyes, but leaned in nevertheless and kissed him gently on the mouth. He cupped her face in his hand and deepened the kiss. She pulled away a few seconds later, knowing that there was still a bit of unfinished business to attend to.

"So, does this make me one of your regulars now?" Rose asked, using the derogatory term in which Albus referred to the girls Scorpius snogged on a regular basis.

"Do you want to be?" Scorpius asked warily. "Because I'm through with that, Rose. I don't want to be juggling a million girls. It's stressful."

"You're saying that me and you are doing whatever the hell it is we're doing exclusively?"

"Well, I am," Scorpius shrugged. "You can make that decision for yourself."

"No, Scorpius, I like the exclusivity thing. But I _am_ going to hold you to that. I'm not interested in being one of the many, okay?"

He nodded. And feeling that any other words would be superfluous, their lips met once more. But as Rose kissed him, she began to realize that she was no longer kissing him for entertainment purposes only. Something had changed. She didn't know whether it was the fact that he was now single, but being alone with him like this had stirred awake something in Rose that had previously been dormant.

She took in the warmth of his lips and the heat of his kiss like she took in air to breathe—she needed it to live. He was all around her, everywhere at once, bombarding her every sense.

And that was when she realized that she had a crush on Scorpius Malfoy. It shouldn't have come as such a big surprise considering that she had thought of little else for weeks, but it still shocked her that she was admitting it to herself. She allowed Scorpius to pull her onto his lap and draw her closer. His hands were in her hair and she could barely think.

These new feelings scared her, but in a good way. Even though Rose knew Scorpius would never feel the same, she had finally found someone to awaken her deadened heart after years of inactivity.

The Scorpius that Rose knew would never be willing to work for a girl and Rose was a girl that had to be worked for. To be with her—to really be with her—Scorpius would have to dodge overprotective brothers, cousins, and parents. Which was something that he would never be willing to do.

So, for the moment, Rose made it her goal to make this relationship as easy as possible. Because she wasn't ready to lose the little piece of Scorpius that she had just yet.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**


	7. Invitations

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Invitations_

It didn't take Rose long to regret trying out for the Quidditch team. She had heard stories about how James Potter ran the team like a dictatorship the year before and just assumed that Caitlyn would make some changes as Captain. Apparently she hadn't learned from her predecessor's mistakes. This was made very clear by the fact that she only ended a grueling six hour practice because her brother ambled onto the field. Due to the fact that he was a member of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, Caitlyn landed on the pitch to give him a piece of her mind and the rest of the team took that as an excuse to sidle into the locker rooms and hope that they could later convince Caitlyn she had told them they could do so.

Bree and Hugo, who were the two people that had annoyed Caitlyn the most due to their constant flirting with each other, grabbed their bags and headed to the door hastily.

"What's the hurry?" Rose asked as she pulled off her shoes.

"I am not about to give her an excuse to give me laps," Hugo said, grabbing Bree by the arm and almost pushing her out of the locker room. "I'll shower up at the castle."

"Is there room for two in that shower?" Rose heard Bree joke just as the door slammed behind them. Albus laughed at her comment, but Rose groaned.

"What?" he asked. "I like Bree."

"I like Bree too," Rose agreed. "That's the problem. What is the world coming to when Hugo and I have the same taste in women?"

"A very interesting world," Dylan answered from next to her on the bench. "I didn't know you were into women, Rose." Rose reached over and hit him playfully on the shoulder.

"You know what I meant!"

"Doesn't mean I can't fantasize," he smirked. Albus, who was passing behind them on his way to the shower, hit Dylan hard in the back of the head.

"I was kidding!" he cried, grabbing his own towel and following Albus into the next room.

Rose was left alone with Parker Thomas who seemed very distracted; he was constantly throwing glances at the door as if waiting for someone to walk in. Rose watched in silence as he fiddled around in his locker, trying to stall time. He was obviously not aware of Rose's presence as he stripped off his shirt and placed it in his locker, leaving his broad, dark-skinned chest bare. He looked towards the door shiftily.

"Showing off for me?" Rose asked smugly.

"Not you, no," he smiled, turning to look at her for the first time. "What do you think? Do I have a chance with Caitlyn?" Rose, who had expected Caitlyn was to explain for his odd behavior, was nevertheless surprised that he was being so blunt. But then again, that's just how Parker was.

"I don't know," Rose shrugged, not wanting to get involved. "She hasn't mentioned anything, but then again we don't talk about our love lives much." Parker nodded vigorously as if that was somehow a good thing.

"So she hasn't said anything about Albus either?" he asked. Without waiting for Rose to reply, he continued, "Because we were having a moment at the Dragon's Breath that night—Caitlyn must have felt it. If only Albus hadn't asked to cut in…"

Rose shrugged. "Albus fancies her," she said. She didn't see any point in lying and maybe that would force Parker to think twice before doing something rash.

"I know," he said, brushing that fact aside. "He talked about it all the time in our dormitory last year. It's what made me start thinking about dating her in the first place."

"Well if Albus saw her first, then doesn't he have first priority or something?" Rose asked.

"I forget you two are related sometimes; of course you would take his side," he smiled jokingly. "But no, I don't see it that way. It's been over six months and Albus hasn't made a move. If he's not, then I'm not going to waste my time sitting around waiting for him to. It's every man for himself."

Rose shook her head slowly. She would never understand boys.

"Put in a good word for me, will you?" Parker asked with a wink before entering the boys' showers also. Rose was still reeling when the door to the locker room opened once more.

"I can't believe Owen just barged onto our field like that!" Caitlyn cried exasperatedly as soon as the door shut behind her. "Just because he's my brother does not mean that he can interrupt my practice to talk to me—you don't see me ambushing Ravenclaw practices, do you?"

"What did he want?" Rose asked.

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "He's all upset because my grandmother wants to throw him a coming-of-age party over Christmas break. I don't know what the big deal is, I had one last year and it was perfectly fine."

"Not for Owen," Rose laughed. "That was the night Wendy broke up with him, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Caitlyn mused. "And he got completely pissed and decided it would be a good idea to go skinny-dipping in our pool."

"Upped his popularity with the Hogwarts's females though," Rose smiled.

"Where is everyone?" Caitlyn asked, glancing around.

"Hugo and Bree left to do Merlin knows what and the boys are in the showers." Caitlyn nodded as the girls headed towards their own bathroom.

"I think Parker's going to ask you to Hogsmeade," Rose said bluntly.

Caitlyn stopped dead in her tracks. "What?"

"He apparently fancies you," Rose shrugged. "I promised him I'd put in a good word."

"I guess Parker's not so bad," Caitlyn mused.

"Not bad at all," Rose agreed. "If you like him. He said Albus has been talking about you for a while though."

"Yeah?" Caitlyn said.

"Since last year," Rose clarified, hoping to sway her decision more towards Albus.

"I hope he doesn't ask me to Hogsmeade," Caitlyn sighed. "Parker, I mean. He's a nice guy but I don't want to go with him. I want to go with Albus." Rose tried to suppress her grin, but she couldn't.

"Then tell him that," she said.

"I can't," Caitlyn sighed. "Not after I turned him down. He probably hates me."

"Yes, Caitlyn, he obviously hates you," Rose said sarcastically. "He's just disguising his feelings of hate by flirting with you every chance he gets. It's a new technique—all the guys are doing it." Caitlyn rolled her eyes.

"Do you think he'll ever ask me out again?" Caitlyn asked quietly.

"Albus likes you and you like him," she said. "Why don't _you_ just ask him out, Cate? I mean, you've put him in an awkward position. I don't think he'll ask you out again until he's positive you'll say yes."

"But I will say yes! How can I convince him of that without asking him out?" Caitlyn groaned.

"I could drop a few hints," Rose shrugged, smiling widely.

Caitlyn looked at her warily for several long seconds. "Nothing to make me seem too desperate, right?" she asked.

"Of course not," Rose smiled as she hopped into the shower. She washed off quickly and changed into clean clothes before Caitlyn was even done showering. Rose decided to wait for her in the main room.

Albus was sitting alone in the locker room, flipping through a Quidditch magazine. When she entered, he looked up eagerly but upon seeing that it was Rose, his smile faded.

"Nice to see you too," she joked, putting her dirty Quidditch robes in the hamper and taking a seat next to her cousin.

"I just thought you were someone else," he mumbled.

"Yeah, Caitlyn," Rose laughed. "Albus, did you really think I wouldn't figure out the truth? I know that she's the one who turned you down. Why did you lie to me?"

Albus sighed deeply. "It was just easier letting you think I was the bad guy."

"No one's the bad guy," Rose corrected. "And you know that she does have feelings for you, right?"

"That's what she said," Albus shrugged.

"But you don't believe it," she noted.

"Not really," he said honestly. "It seems to me that she just wants to be friends."

"Trust me, Albus. That's not true."

"You're being very cryptic," he said, starting to get aggravated. "If you have something to say, can you please just say it?"

"You should ask her to Hogsmeade," Rose replied. Albus looked at her in surprise for a few seconds, but then rolled his eyes. His mouth was open to voice what Rose was sure would be a well-reasoned argument when the door to the boys' showers opened and Parker walked out, toweling his hair dry.

"Has Caitlyn left yet?" he asked immediately. Albus stiffened from next to Rose and refused to look at Parker, much less answer him.

"She's still in the shower," Rose replied.

"Okay, I'll wait," Parker said, once again fiddling around in his locker. Rose wanted to continue her conversation with Albus, but she didn't want to do it in front of Parker and she highly doubted that Albus would listen to her in the first place. His anger was building every second that Parker stayed in the room and if Rose knew one thing about Albus it was that he could not control his anger. It was a rare occasion that he got angry but when he did, you did not want his anger to be directed at you.

Thankfully, Rose only had to sit in the silent locker room for a few more minutes before Caitlyn emerged from the shower. Her long hair was curling from the water and she had no makeup on but the look on Albus's face clearly told Rose that he thought she was the most beautiful person in the world.

"That was a good practice today," Parker said as soon as he saw Caitlyn.

"It was decent," Caitlyn agreed and Rose saw a faint blush rising to her cheeks. "There were some more drills I wanted to run, but with Owen showing up—"

"Sorry for just leaving practice like that," Albus said, trying to get his apology in before Parker. "But we didn't know how long you'd be and it was already three o'clock so we just figured—"

"Well actually Dylan was the one who decided to just leave," Parker interrupted. "I was all for staying out there a little while longer."

"I wasn't quite ready to come in either," Albus insisted and Rose couldn't help but laugh lightly. No one took any notice of her. The testosterone level in the room was way too high and she was enjoying it immensely.

"Well, we could always go back out there," Parker argued, turning to Albus this time instead of talking to Caitlyn. "We could have a fun little scrimmage game. I wouldn't say no to a nice round of strip Quidditch."

"I think that's a little bit inappropriate, don't you?" Albus cried. Caitlyn looked to Rose for help, but Rose just shrugged.

"I'm actually just really tired," Caitlyn sighed. She yawned deeply for emphasis. "I think I'm just going to go back to my dormitory and take a quick nap before dinner."

"Naps are always fun," Parker agreed. Caitlyn smiled at him and crossed to room to put her shoes in her locker. As she turned her back, Parker shook his head as if he couldn't believe what he had just said.

"I'll see you guys later," she said after she shut the door to her locker. Albus and Parker exchanged a brief, challenging glance.

"Caitlyn, wait!" Parker cried. She looked up at him curiously as Albus's whole body sunk with dejection. Rather than face the couple, he adjusted his gaze towards the floor. "I was just wondering if you want to go to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?"

Caitlyn looked at a loss for words and just stood there, staring at Parker as if she could not believe the words that had just come out of his mouth. "I…" she started, but seemed unable to finish the sentence. Parker waited patiently. "I can't," she finally choked out. Rose, who was the closest to Albus, heard him sigh in relief. "Thank you, though."

"Maybe another time," Parker smiled, making his way for the door.

"Maybe," Caitlyn agreed.

Rose sidled closer to Albus as Parker made his exit and whispered in his ear so that Caitlyn couldn't hear. "Ask her out. She wants to go with _you_."

"No, she doesn't," Albus argued stiffly, refusing to make eye contact with his cousin.

"Trust me, she does," Rose insisted.

Albus rolled his eyes, but turned to a new argument. "I can't ask her out right after she turned down Parker."

"Yes you can!" she cried. Albus looked up at her angrily, but Rose glared right back at him. "I'm not playing around. Ask her!" She gave Albus a slight push towards Caitlyn, who was standing by the front door still in a daze.

"Hey," Albus said awkwardly as he stumbled in front of her, off balance from Rose's shove.

"Hey," Caitlyn replied breathily.

Albus took a deep breath to ready himself for another rejection. "I want to go to Hogsmeade with you," he said eventually. It wasn't a question, but it was all he could manage.

"Yes," Caitlyn answered immediately, before taking in his words. "I mean, I want to go with you too."

"Seriously?" Albus asked, his face breaking into a broad grin. Figuring that they needed some time alone, Rose snuck out the back door knowing that they would never realize she was missing.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

After dropping her Quidditch stuff off in her dorm room, Rose figured that she might as well get some homework done and she headed for the library. She was more behind on work than she was willing to admit and considering it was the weekend, she might as well take advantage of the free time. Plus, with Caitlyn otherwise entertained, she didn't have much else to do.

When she entered the library, however, all thoughts of homework left her mind as she caught sight of Scorpius sitting by himself at a table near the back. His shoulders were hunched over and he was working feverishly. Rose smiled to herself. Although she wasn't naïve enough to assume Scorpius was top of every class without ever turning in a homework assignment, she'd never actually seen him working. In fact, she half figured he was paying Albus to do his assignments for him.

She was just about to join him when she thought better of it. Was that allowed? Sure they spent nearly every night together, either patrolling or entertaining themselves otherwise, but studying together in the library was a bit…couple-y. She could feel her heart race as she walked over to his table. He raised his head as she paused behind the seat opposite him.

"Am I allowed to sit here?" she asked quizzically. Scorpius smirked at her and set his quill down.

"Are you actually asking my permission to do something?"

"Bugger off," she muttered, taking the seat.

"This is probably going to make people suspicious," he smiled, looking around the room.

"Maybe I should just pretend like I was asking to borrow a quill then," Rose said haughtily, pulling her school books out.

"I'm not complaining, I'm just making a point. If this school wasn't so gossip hungry, it wouldn't matter. We're just two people who happened to sit at the same table in the library."

"Does it count as gossip if they're arriving to the right conclusions?" Rose asked, glancing up at Scorpius. He shrugged.

"As far as everyone is concerned, it's gossip."

"And what if Albus walks in?"

"If Albus walks in, you're borrowing a quill," Scorpius said, suddenly growing serious.

"You're that scared of him?" Rose asked. "We could always tell him we're just friends."

"Well now, Rose, that would be a lie," Scorpius joked. "And how many girls have I ever just been friends with? He'd know something was up and he'd assume we're doing a lot more than we are."

Rose felt a faint blush rise to her cheeks. Even though Scorpius had a reputation as a guy who would shag you and then be gone the next morning, he'd been overly polite to Rose. His hands had stayed at perfectly acceptable locations throughout all of their snogging sessions and Rose couldn't help but wonder why. It probably had something to do with Albus.

"I doubt Albus will show up in the library," Rose said after a little while. "And if anyone feels it necessary to tell him we're in here together, then you can tell him I'm tutoring you or something."

"Tell him you're tutoring me?" Scorpius laughed. "Then he really will know we're lying!" Rose rolled her eyes. "But actually I do need help," he mused, pushing a textbook towards her.

"Is it on the Potions essay?" Rose asked with a sigh. "Because I haven't even started yet and—"

"It's Muggle Studies, actually," he admitted.

"You really do need help if you haven't realized after four years that I'm not in that class," Rose muttered.

"Your mum's a muggleborn, right?" he asked exasperatedly, but Rose couldn't help but notice the nervous look hidden in his eyes. He knew perfectly well that her mother was a muggleborn due to the fact that she was tortured for that very crime at his grandparent's house during her seventh year at Hogwarts.

"She is," Rose agreed. "But I only know about muggle things because of my grandparents. My Dad's very…uninspired by the muggle way of life, so we don't have many muggle things in our house. Although that may just be because my Dad can't even work something as simple as a telephone."

Scorpius smiled. "Yeah, us purebloods are like that sometimes."

"Well what's your question? I might be able to help."

"What's an iPod?" he asked, glancing down at his paper in order to make sure he got the name right.

"An eye-pod?" Rose asked. "How's it spelled?"

Scorpius pushed his worksheet towards her. "Wrong," he answered.

"Oh, an iPod!" she said, staring at the word. "I've heard of that. Actually, I think I have one. It plays music."

"Like a radio," Scorpius said sounding relieved to finally understand.

"Sort of," Rose smiled. It wasn't often that Scorpius didn't understand something and it was even rarer that he let someone explain it to him. "You like the Weird Sisters, right? Well, isn't it annoying having to wait for their music to come on the wireless?"

"I guess," he mused. "Especially when they're playing Celestina Warbeck."

"Well, an iPod lets you keep all of your favorite music in one place so that you can listen to it whenever you want."

"But isn't that half the fun of the radio?" Scorpius asked, as if to prove that wizards didn't have it completely backwards. "The fact that you don't know what's going to play next?"

"You can put an iPod on shuffle and it does the same thing," Rose shrugged. Scorpius looked at her as if she'd gone mad but decided not to question her argument and turned back to his paper. "Why are you taking Muggle Studies anyway?"

"Most Ministry positions recommend that you have some knowledge of muggles," he shrugged. "And like I said before, us purebloods are pretty clueless."

"But why continue to NEWT level?"

"Why all the questions?" Scorpius smirked. "I never took you to be one to judge me by my last name. Is it impossible that a Malfoy is interested in muggles?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "You just don't seem like the type to stay in a class that you suck at."

"Well, I find that a little mediocrity helps girls to find me more approachable." He threw her a flashing glance before turning back to his work.

"I remember seeing you my very first day of Hogwarts," Rose said suddenly, after several seconds of silence. Scorpius looked at her curiously and she shook her head to align her thoughts. "I saw you on the platform. Or my parents did. My Dad told me to beat you in every class and not to get too close to you because my Grandfather wouldn't approve if I dated a pureblood."

"You failed on both accounts, I see." Rose just laughed. "My Dad gave me some advice about you and Albus too. The first part was to beat you in every class—"

"Our fathers are more similar than they realize," Rose noted.

"And the second part," Scorpius continued, "was not to judge you based off of his relationship with your parents." Rose's mouth opened slightly as she felt the mood at their table change slightly. "I've grown up hearing the same damn stories you have, Rose, just from a different point of view. And he regrets it, my Dad—all of it! He—"

"I know he does," Rose said quietly.

"Let me finish, please," he begged. "I've told Albus this before and if me and you are going to be friends then you need to hear it too. My father's actions were purely a result of how he was raised and I know that's no excuse, but—he can't even talk about what he did. Everything I know, I know from my Mum or textbooks. He's so ashamed. And while he still doesn't really like your family, he respects them for what they did for the wizarding world…and for him."

They sat in silence after he finished, Rose trying to think of something to say. "My parents didn't raise me to hate the Malfoys, you know," she said, a slight bit of humor in her words. "And those stories you assume I heard when I was younger, they never mentioned your dad. Except for the fact that your father and my father were rivals in school—and that your father was pretty nasty with the insults." Scorpius smirked, but let her continue. "I didn't even know that he had anything to do with the death of Albus Dumbledore until I got to school here and people told me."

"I guess our parents have kind of been granted a second chance," Scorpius mused as they stared hard at each other from across the table. "In me, you, and Albus."

"If only they could see us now," Rose smirked. Glancing around, she noticed that the library was almost empty and she vaguely wondered if they were missing dinner. She didn't, however, want to leave.

"So, if my heritage didn't influence your hatred of me at all, then why in the world did you avoid me like the plague for the first six years of school?" he asked.

"There are plenty of things besides your last name to despise you for," Rose laughed.

"Oh yeah?" he asked, leaning slightly towards her over the table. "Name one."

"You're cocky," she said, leaning closer also.

"And another?"

"You treat girls like shit."

"Really?" he asked with only a centimeter between them. Leaning forward the rest of the way, he kissed her lightly on the lips but pulled away almost before Rose even had a chance to enjoy it. Once her head had cleared, she quickly glanced around the room. No one had seen them. When she turned back, Scorpius was once again looking at his worksheet, his flushed cheeks the only sign that anything had just occurred.

"So, doing homework together is obviously allowed?" Rose mused.

"I'd say so," Scorpius smirked.

"But is going to Hogsmeade together pushing the boundaries?" she wondered out loud. Scorpius looked up at her with a half smile on his face.

"I think that might tip Albus off that something abnormal is going on."

"Albus is going to be distracted," Rose laughed, forgetting that Scorpius didn't know yet. "He's going to Hogsmeade with Caitlyn, but act surprised when he tells you."

Scorpius looked mildly shocked , but pleased nonetheless. "About time," he muttered. "Well in that case, if I can make sure Albus's plans place him elsewhere, then I see no problem with two 'friends' accidentally running into each other at the Three Broomsticks on Saturday."

"So, we're friends now, are we?" Rose smirked.

"We're friends," Scorpius agreed with a smile. "But I still don't think we should flaunt it."

"Oh, you mean by doing things such as snogging in the middle of the library? Good plan!"

"So I'll have to learn some self-control," he shrugged. "Can't be that hard, can it?"

And sitting there in the library, having an actual conversation with Scorpius Malfoy, Rose felt more alive than she had in weeks. Being with him felt right, solid. And those were the last two words she had ever heard to describe a relationship with Scorpius. But Rose was now just smitten enough to believe that she would be the one to change him.

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**


	8. Hogsmeade

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Hogsmeade_

Rose was awoken by a sound that she was very familiar with hearing on Hogsmeade weekends. Sylvia and her slag of airhead cronies were already awake, gossiping about their dates and trying to decide whether Primrose Amber or Dragonfly Pink lipgloss would set off the color of their eyes better.

Rose threw her pillow over her head and tried to go back to sleep, but now that she was awake all she could think about was the fact that she had made plans to meet Scorpius later at the Three Broomsticks. Sure, it didn't count as a date per se, but it had to mean something if he was actually taking time out of his day to spend with her.

She tossed and turned for a few more minutes before she pulled her curtains back and decided that she might as well get ready. To her surprise, Caitlyn was sitting up in the bed next to hers, wide awake as well.

"Good morning," Rose muttered over the cacophony of her fellow roommates as she got out of bed and headed for the bathroom. She stopped half way there once she realized Caitlyn hadn't responded. Rose turned back to her friend and instantly began to take in the fact that her face was incredibly pale and she was looking at Rose as if she were scared to death.

"I can't do this," she muttered as Rose took a seat across from her on her own bed. "I can't go on a date with Albus Potter. I must be mental!"

"Of course you can!" Rose insisted. "You and Albus have been friends forever—don't let things get awkward now."

"Too late," she hissed. "What if he tries to kiss me?"

"Do you not want to kiss him?" Rose asked, trying to refrain from laughing.

"I don't know how to!"

"You'll figure it out—trust me."

"Okay, I officially can't breath," Caitlyn whined, burying her head in her hands.

"Cate, just go get ready. Maybe that will calm your nerves."

"I don't know how to!" Caitlyn cried. "I've never had to get ready for a date before!"

A sudden silence fell in the room at her words. Sylvia, who had paused with her mascara wand raised and only one set of eyelashes done, turned to the two girls.

"Did I just hear you right?" she asked. "Caitlyn, do you have a _date_?"

Caitlyn shrugged self-consciously. "Yeah," she admitted.

"With who?" their other roommates, Jasmine and Hanna, cooed. All three girls made their way over and crowded around Caitlyn's bed. Rose couldn't help but feel that Sylvia looked a bit like a monster with her makeup only half done.

"Albus Potter," Caitlyn finally answered. The reaction was instantaneous. All three girls squealed. Rose couldn't help but feel a bit left out as they began judging Albus's finer points. Sylvia seemed to be under the impression that it was thanks to her brilliant teachings that Caitlyn had snagged such a catch. Rose and Caitlyn just exchanged smiles, but Sylvia took it upon herself to help Caitlyn get ready and Rose could see the look of relief on her face.

Rose did her own makeup and tamed her hair a bit using a spell her mother had taught her. She put on a jean skirt and a tank top before excusing herself from the room. Caitlyn promised to meet her and Albus in the Great Hall in five minutes.

Albus was already waiting in the Common Room when Rose sauntered over to him with a smirk on her face. "Morning," she greeted. He stood hastily but upon noticing that she was alone, he sat back down and began to wring his hands together. "You look just as nervous as her," Rose noted, taking a seat. Albus laughed lightly.

"I'm freaking out, Rosie. I've never been this nervous for a date in my life."

"Well Sylvia's dolling her up nicely, so she's going to meet us in the Great Hall."

"Okay," he muttered, standing up. "You look nice, by the way," he noted as they made their way out of the Common Room. "What are you doing today?"

"Nothing special," Rose shrugged, hoping that her lie wasn't obvious. "I just thought I'd do some shopping. Doesn't Fred own the Hogsmeade branch of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes now? I thought I'd stop in there and see him."

Albus groaned. "Please Merlin don't tell him I'm out with Caitlyn—that's the absolute last thing I need today."

"It's not like he fancies her," Rose laughed. Fred and Caitlyn were just as close as Albus and Rose were and Rose could see where the thought of Fred finding out about Albus's date would worry him a bit. If there was one thing that was true about the Weasley boys, it was that they were insanely overprotective.

"No, but he'd kick my ass nevertheless," Albus said. "Just don't mention it, please."

"My lips are sealed," she agreed, locking them with an invisible key. "But you're being ridiculous."

"And I don't believe I asked your opinion on the matter," he said, nudging her in the ribs playfully.

They took a seat at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later and they were almost immediately joined by Lily Potter, who looked at her older brother accusingly.

"So, the word going around is that you have a date," she said, pushing her finger hard into Albus's chest. "And you didn't tell me! What kind of brother are you?"

"A forgetful one?" he tried.

"He's going with Caitlyn Wood," Rose added helpfully. Lily's face lit up in a bright smile and she leaned all the way across the table in order to give Albus a hug.

"I'm so happy for you!" she squealed in a very good imitation of Sylvia.

"Um…thanks?" he replied. As Rose scooped eggs and toast onto her plate, Lily continued to overload Albus with tips that he kept insisting that he didn't need.

"I've been on dates before, Lily," he groaned. "Leave me alone."

"Fine!" she said haughtily. "But don't screw this up. I like Caitlyn." Rose watched her cousin as she went back to her seat and noticed that she took a spot next to Hugo and Bree, who were looking quite friendly.

Rose pointed this out silently to Albus. "Caitlyn's going to like this," he smirked. "She was freaking out last night because she didn't want _us_ to be dating while we're on the same Quidditch team. And even _I'm_ more stable in relationships that Hugo."

"You better be more than stable," Rose threatened.

"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," he said with a smile, but his eyes were not on Rose. They were instead focused on someone behind her. "Hey, Scorpius."

Rose turned around to find the boy standing right behind her. "Hey," he greeted, taking a seat next to Rose. "Weasley," he addressed her. Rose just rolled her eyes.

"Caitlyn is going to be here in just a few seconds," Albus said moodily as he glanced towards the doors as if to emphasize his point. "What do you want?"

"Aaron just left for Hogsmeade and I didn't exactly fancy sitting at the Slytherin table all alone," he shrugged.

"Don't tell me Scorpius Malfoy doesn't have a date," Albus guffawed.

"I had plenty of offers, but none quite caught my interest," Scorpius smirked. Deciding it might be best to pretend she wasn't completely enamored by their conversation, Rose picked up her fork to continue eating. Just as she brought a bit of scrambled eggs to her mouth, she felt Scorpius's hand come to rest on her knee. The shock of his touch caused her to lose grip of her fork and her food fell off of it onto her plate once more.

Albus looked at her curiously, but continued his joking with Scorpius. He, of course, had seen nothing to surprise him. The two boys continued speaking (Rose thought they were talking about Quidditch but she wasn't really paying attention) and Scorpius continued drawing his fingers lightly across her thigh. The feel of his touch was driving her insane.

"Hey, guys." Rose looked up and noticed Caitlyn's sudden presence. Scorpius didn't move his hand.

"Hey, Cate," Albus said, standing up from his seat hastily to greet her. Scorpius and Rose exchanged amused glances as Albus helped her into her seat and began serving her breakfast.

"Thanks," Caitlyn said. Although the young couple was rather polite to each other, they weren't sitting in silence which was a relief to Rose. She wasn't paying much attention, however, because Scorpius was still being enormously distracting.

When it got to be too much, Rose grabbed his hand to stop his ministrations and gave him a stern look. He just smirked at her and began playing with her fingers instead.

"Stop it!" she finally had to hiss under her breath. Scorpius's mouth was open to reply when Albus and Caitlyn suddenly stood up.

"We'll see you later!" Albus said. Caitlyn smiled at Rose happily and the couple left the table together.

"Do you really think that was wise? Anyone could have seen you!" Rose admonished as soon as Albus was gone.

"Probably not," he grinned.

"Yeah, probably not," Rose agreed.

"So, I'll see you later?" he asked, standing up from his seat. Rose rolled her eyes, but just nodded. He walked off, still smirking.

**.*.:.:.:.:.:.*.**

Rose ended up going into Hogsmeade with Lily and a friend of hers who were both without dates. But due to the fact that they were still interested in tracking some boys down by the end of the day, Rose was able to escape them easily when it came time for her to randomly bump into Scorpius at the Three Broomsticks.

She walked in the door and scanned the room as covertly as she could. Scorpius was standing, as planned, at the bar. Rose made her way over and leaned casually against the counter next to him.

"One butterbeer, please," she said to an elderly Madam Rosmerta.

"Fancy seeing you here," Scorpius smirked, turning to glance at her.

"Just needed a drink," she smiled. Madam Rosmerta handed her her drink and Scorpius pushed himself back from the bar.

"Care to join me?" he asked as he began heading for an empty booth near the back of the room.

"I guess," Rose sighed. They arrived at the booth and took seats across from each other. Scorpius glanced around the room to see if anyone was watching them. Rose, noticing this, began to laugh. "We're being completely obvious, you know."

"I know," he laughed. "Albus is going to kill me!"

"Albus has no proof of anything," Rose pointed out. "And even if he did, we're just snogging! It's not like I'm dating you or anything."

"I don't think he's going to see it as 'just snogging.'"

"And why not?" she asked, taking a sip of her warm drink.

"Because most of the girls I 'just snog' don't also accompany me to Hogsmeade." Rose looked into his eyes and realized that he was being sincere. Her heart immediately started racing. She had been trying to convince herself since this morning that they weren't going on a date, but if this wasn't a date then what was it? It couldn't be a date if they weren't dating. Could it?

"Well if we're not 'just snogging', then what are we doing?" Rose questioned.

"I don't know, Rose," he breathed. "But I don't think we can continue just snogging." As he said this, his hand approached hers on the table but rather than take her hand in his, he simply made it so that their fingers were brushing each other gently.

"I'm not going to graduate from 'just snogging' to 'just shagging,'" Rose joked, trying to add some humor back into the situation. Scorpius wouldn't take her hint.

"That's not what I meant," he said. "And you know it."

Rose's heart was nearly beating out of her chest. Did she want to date Scorpius? Hell yeah! But was it a good idea? Probably not. Look what he did to Madeline—he sent her packing just as soon as something new and shiny came walking by. Why would she be any different?

"Scorpius, I—" He silenced her suddenly, by raising his hand off of the table. He was looking at someone over Rose's shoulder and she turned around hastily, hoping beyond hope that Albus had not decided to change his plans and walk into the pub. Who she saw was almost worse.

"What are they doing here?" Scorpius asked as Rose turned back around hastily, hoping that James Potter and Fred Weasley would not spot her.

"Fred owns a shop here," Rose muttered, sliding down into her seat. "I guess James is visiting him."

"They're heading this way," Scorpius muttered. Knowing that her cursed Weasley hair had given her away, Rose decided to just sit up and take whatever was coming. Hopefully it wouldn't be too torturous—Fred and James had always gotten along with Scorpius just fine.

"Rosie?" James asked, leaning right in front of her to make sure that who he was seeing really was his cousin.

"And Scorpius Malfoy?" Fred added, glancing back and forth between the two.

"Hi, guys," Rose greeted hesitantly.

"What are you two doing here?" James asked, glaring at Scorpius and clearly assuming the worst.

"Together?" Fred clarified.

"We just ran into each other," Rose shrugged. "Our two best mates are out on a date so we were ditched."

"Thank Merlin!" James sighed, nearly collapsing into the seat next to Rose. She scooted over to give him more room and saw that Scorpius was moodily doing the same for Fred across from her. "For a second there I thought that you two were on a _date_!"

"That's what I was thinking too!" Fred said, joining in on James's laughter. Rose and Scorpius exchanged wary glances.

"Can you imagine how utterly horrible that would be?" James asked. "No offense, mate," he added to Scorpius. Scorpius just smiled at him lightly.

"No, horrible. Right," Scorpius agreed.

"Think about it," Fred said. "Can you imagine the look on Uncle Ron's face when he found out his precious Rosie was dating a Malfoy?" Both boys began to guffaw with laughter.

"I can just hear him now," James laughed, having to literally gasp for breath to get out the rest of his sentence in a poor imitation of Ron Weasley. "'Rosie, are you trying to break my heart!'"

"That's very funny, guys," Rose said humorlessly, trying to get them to shut up. She was growing angrier by the second and she could sense that Scorpius was feeling more than just a little bit awkward.

"Not to mention the fact that Scorpius has been with nearly every girl at this school!" Fred said, nudging Scorpius in the ribs as if this were some monumental accomplishment. "I think that we all know our little cousin deserves better than that!"

"Hell yeah!" James laughed. "Merlin, you guys scared us there for a second!"

"Sorry," they both muttered. Sensing the harshness in their voices, James hastily sought for a change of subject. "So, Al's on a date then?"

"Yeah, with Caitlyn Wood," Scorpius answered before Rose could stop him.

"What!" Fred cried, leaping up from his seat. James grimaced slightly.

"He finally asked her then?" James asked.

"You knew about this?" Fred cried. James shrugged. Scorpius wasn't paying attention to their conversation at all and was looking at Rose as if he had never seen her before.

"Are you okay?" she asked him while James and Fred were busy arguing.

He just continued to stare at her, but finally nodded. "I think I need to be somewhere else," he said after a second. "Bye." He squeezed out of his seat and walked out of the Three Broomsticks without James or Fred ever noticing. Rose watched the closed door long after he had gone. Although Rose wasn't completely sure what had just happened, she knew that it must have something to do with her cousins' words. Promising herself that she would find him and set things right later, she stood up from her seat.

"Where are _you_ going?" Fred demanded.

"_I_ am heading back up to the castle," she shrugged. "Unless you two can stop arguing. Caitlyn's a big girl, Fred. I know she's like your little sister and everything, but I'm taking care of her. Don't worry!"

"I don't like this," he admitted.

"Albus really likes her," James said, trying to calm his best friend down. Fred shrugged, but Rose could tell that they had won.

"She's supposed to meet me for dinner," he sighed. "We'll talk it about it then, I guess."

"Good idea," James and Rose agreed.

"Rosie, why don't you come back to the shop with us?" James asked after a few seconds of silence. "Fred's invented some brilliant new stuff!"

And that's how Rose found herself exiting Fred's new store two hours later with an armful of free merchandise. While it was all interesting, she sincerely wished that she had been able to get out of there without drawing adverse attention much earlier. She was worried about Scorpius; he had looked pretty messed up when he made his departure from the Three Broomsticks earlier.

Not knowing where Scorpius would be or even if he was in the mood to talk to her, Rose walked back to the Three Broomsticks just in case he had gone back there looking for her. She had felt something change as they had sat in the Three Broomsticks together. She had honestly suspected that Scorpius wanted a real relationship with her, but then her cousins had to interrupt.

And Scorpius had admitted to her and Albus once that he did not deal with overprotective brothers. Rose felt that her cousins definitely qualified.

The Three Broomsticks was even more crowded than it had been earlier when Rose walked in. The sun was setting and people were spending the remainder of their time in town sipping drinks with friends.

Rose scanned the room three times before she was able to admit to herself that Scorpius was not there.

"Looking for someone?" Rose turned around to find Owen standing right behind her.

"Yeah," she sighed. "But he's not here."

"Well at least he didn't completely run out on you mid-conversation like Danielle did to me."

"What happened?" Rose asked, trying not to find the situation humorous.

"I think I said something wrong," he shrugged. "Who the hell knows? But I was just about to head up to the castle if you want to come with me."

"Now that sounds like a good idea," Rose sighed in relief. Owen held the door open for her and they stepped out into the cool evening air together.

"Bad day?" he asked.

"I've had better," Rose agreed. "So do you think you and Danielle are over for good?"

Owen groaned. "I have no clue. I don't want it to be over, I don't think. I just…don't get her sometimes."

"Girls are like that," Rose smiled.

"But I understand _you_ just fine!" Owen countered.

"I'm not dating you."

"And you think that if we started dating, I wouldn't understand you any more?" he laughed.

"It's possible," she shrugged.

"Well, we'll just have to try that sometime," he said. But his heart wasn't really into flirting at the moment. "If she wants to break up with me, I wish she'd just go ahead and do it."

"Life is rarely that easy."

"So, have you seen Caitlyn yet?" he asked, thankfully changing the subject.

"Nope. Fred said he was taking her out to dinner, so she may not be back until after curfew."

"Well at least she'll be out with Fred instead of Albus. Not that I don't like Albus," he added hastily. "I just don't trust anyone out with my sister."

"Except Fred," Rose noted.

"Don't be difficult," Owen said.

They reached the front doors and let themselves in. The castle was eerily empty considering that the older kids were still out and the younger kids had already finished dinner. Rose decided to take a rather circuitous route to the Gryffindor Common Room so that she could keep talking to Owen.

"Let's cut through here," he said, stopping at a tapestry. Rose assumed there was a passageway behind it. Owen lifted the tapestry and immediately the sounds of a girl moaning reached them. Laughing, Owen placed the tapestry back in its appropriate place but now they could hear the sound even through the fabric.

"Seriously?" Rose laughed. "Why don't people use their heads? Out of all the places to shag!"

Owen actually collapsed onto the floor he was laughing so hard. "It's probably some fourth years who have no idea what they're doing!"

The girl behind the tapestry let out another loud moan. "It sounds like the guy knows what he's doing," Rose sniggered.

"Help me up so we can get out of here," Owen said, holding his hand out. Rose grabbed it to help him, but she ended up dropping him on the floor instead. They began laughing once more. On Rose's second attempt to help him up, he just pulled her down with him. They were still laughing madly, when the girl let out a scream once again.

"Scorpius!" she moaned.

Rose stopped laughing immediately and her blood ran cold. She wasn't the only one.

"That's Danielle," Owen said, his face distorted in rage. Without pausing to think things through, he stood up and charged into the hidden passageway. Danielle screamed again and this time it had nothing to do with pleasure. Although Rose didn't want to see what was on the other side of the tapestry, she knew she'd be the one who had to talk Owen down.

"I trusted you!" Owen shouted as Rose walked into the dimly lit corridor. Danielle looked close to tears as she pulled her blouse over her head. Scorpius was standing behind her, his shirt unbuttoned and his hands in his pockets. As Rose stepped closer to the group, Scorpius looked up and saw her. Their eyes only locked for one second before Rose looked away. The look on Scorpius's face was one of pure shock. He hadn't expected her to catch him, apparently.

"Owen, listen to me," Danielle begged him as she choked over her own sobs.

"Tell me this isn't what it looks like!" Owen dared. "Merlin, Danielle, I'd expect this from him but not from you!" Sensing that he was about to do something he would regret a few detentions later, Rose placed her hand gently on his arm.

"If you'd just forgive me—" Danielle begged.

"Forgive you?" Owen laughed sardonically. "I can do better than you. You want me to prove it?"

Without waiting for a reply, Owen pulled Rose to him and kissed her. Rose struggled to pull away, but she didn't have the strength. Although she was being held to his mouth against her will, she found that she didn't really mind the kiss.

Owen pulled away, a look of sincere apology in his eyes. Rose just smiled at him sadly. "Never speak to me again," Owen said to Danielle and then stormed out of the passageway in the same direction that he had come.

"Owen!" Danielle cried and she ran after him. Rose couldn't help but think that she was much braver than she looked.

Rose and Scorpius were left alone in the corridor, standing just a few feet away from each other. Rose refused to look him in the eyes because she didn't want to remember the look of shame she was sure he was wearing. Neither of them said a word, they just stood there, and the most aggravating thing was that Rose wasn't sure whether she was allowed to be mad or not. But she had made things perfectly clear from the start: if there were other girls in the picture, Rose would be gone.

"I'm done," she said helplessly.

"Rose," he begged, taking a step towards her.

"I'm done," she repeated harshly. She stormed past Scorpius, hoping that he wouldn't stop her. He didn't.

She thankfully made it out of the tiny corridor before she started crying. And then the very fact that she was crying over him made her cry even harder.

There was no one in the Common Room to see her as she went up to her dormitory. She changed into pajamas and just lay in bed. Her head and her heart were both full to bursting and she had no clue what to do. Just this morning, things had been so perfect and in less than twenty-four hours, Scorpius had found a way to ruin things once again.

She listened as Sylvia and her cronies came in one by one, but they definitely were not what Rose needed. The other three girls were already in bed asleep by the time the dormitory door opened once more. Rose dried her eyes and put on a happy face as she pulled back her curtains. When Caitlyn saw that Rose was still awake, her face broke into a giant grin.

"Did you have fun?" Rose asked.

"Rose, I had the most amazing day of my life!" Caitlyn gushed, and then she was off telling Rose about everything that Albus had done and how polite and chivalrous he was. Thankfully, the conversation didn't require much input and Rose just nodded whenever she thought it was appropriate. Suddenly, however, Caitlyn stopped talking. "What's wrong?" she asked. And just the fact that she had noticed something was off made Rose's heart swell. Caitlyn always had been and always would be her best friend. And she deserved to know what had been going on.

"If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell Albus?" Rose asked, the tears already falling out of her eyes.

"Of course," Caitlyn breathed, jumping over to Rose's bed and pulling her into a hug. When Rose's tears had subsided, she relayed the whole story about the last few months to her best friend starting with the concert and ending with what had just happened tonight.

"I really liked him, Caitlyn," she finished, her tears returning once more. She didn't bother to mention that that was the first time she had let herself admit that to even herself. It was obvious that Caitlyn didn't know what to say, so she just sat there stroking Rose's back and crying with her. It was enough. And because she felt that Caitlyn needed to know, Rose closed her story with, "And your idiot brother kissed me."

"Well now that one we can handle," Caitlyn smiled. And suddenly everything hurt just a little bit less.

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :D**


	9. Clichés

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Clichés_

Rose woke up the next morning to find that her dormitory was already empty. She thought about leaving her room, but the idea seemed thoroughly unappealing. The only person she had any interest in seeing was Caitlyn and there was a very strong chance that she was with Albus—the very last person Rose wanted to face right now. Seeing Albus would just make her feel guilty.

But when she thought about it, Albus wasn't the _last_ person she wanted to see. That honor would have to go to Scorpius.

Rose sat down on her bed once more, trying to gather the strength and courage to face Hogwarts. She didn't know what was bothering her so much anyway. It wasn't like she had just gone through a vicious public breakup or anything. All that had changed was the fact that Rose and Scorpius were no longer "just snogging."

She had just stood up to try and leave once more, when the door opened. Caitlyn was standing there, a plate of food in her hand.

"I figured you wouldn't want to eat in the Great Hall," she shrugged, handing the plate over.

"Thanks," Rose sighed gratefully as she grabbed the fork and began shoveling eggs into her mouth.

"Scorpius wasn't at breakfast either," Caitlyn said as she took a seat on the edge of Rose's bed. "Word about him and Danielle is spreading like wildfire, edged on by Owen I think. But you and Owen are going to patrol together tonight until Malfoy is brave enough to come out of his dormitory." Rose nodded. "Owen was looking for you this morning," she added. "He feels bad about snogging you last night."

"He has nothing to feel bad about," Rose mused. "I've wanted to snog him for a while now."

"Well then goody," Caitlyn deadpanned.

"I'm going to have to see him again eventually. Scorpius, I mean," Rose said seriously, her spirits dropping once more. "We can't run from each other forever."

"At least you can put it off another day," she shrugged.

"I feel like I've been dumped," Rose admitted. "And I don't like it."

"You need to get out of this room," Caitlyn said sternly, standing up. "Let's take a walk or something. I cancelled Quidditch practice."

"You cancelled Quidditch practice?" Rose asked incredulously. "We play Slytherin in less than a week!"

"I cancelled Quidditch practice," she repeated, "Come on, let's go take a walk."

It turned out to be a nice day outside and Rose was relieved to find that the autumn chill she had been waiting for had finally arrived. The girls took some of their homework outside with them, but barely any of it got done. They decided to skip lunch, but shortly after the lunch hour ended, Albus joined them with a plate of food for "his two favorite girls."

Although Rose felt a bit awkward in his company at first, she came to realize that it was just Albus. And if it ever came down to it, he'd take her side over Scorpius's any day.

The three friends sat outside joking around and talking late into the afternoon. It was only when the sun was starting to set that Rose realized there was a question she had forgotten to ask last night.

"Are you two going out?" she asked, interrupting Albus mid-sentence. He exchanged a quick look with Caitlyn.

"We are," Caitlyn grinned. Rose smiled giddily and Albus rolled his eyes, but he looked rather pleased with himself otherwise.

"Oh Merlin!" Rose cried, leaping up from her spot on the ground. They looked at her as if she'd gone mad. "I'm totally ruining your first day alone as a couple! I'm so sorry!"

"Rose, sit back down," Albus demanded. "You're being ridiculous. Just because we're dating doesn't mean we can't all hang out. You're my bloody cousin—I can't get rid of you."

"Well as sweet as that is," Rose sighed, "we really should be heading back. Dinner's in five minutes and I've got patrol afterwards."

"Caitlyn told you that you're patrolling with Owen, right?" he asked as he stood and then helped Caitlyn up.

"Yeah," Rose muttered. "Is Scorpius too busy shagging people's girlfriends to come to patrols?"

"Okay, now that was out of line," Albus muttered. "He makes mistakes, but his heart's in the right place. Normally."

"Yes, it's just his dick that's out of line," Caitlyn said, surprising both of them. "It was _my _brother he helped Danielle cheat on. I'm not quite fond of Scorpius Malfoy at the moment."

"Well if it's any compensation, he looks bloody horrible," Albus said as they entered the building and began making their way towards the Great Hall. "I went to see him right before lunch and he was even paler than usual."

"I guess he finally just fucked more than he could handle," Rose shrugged.

"With all due respect, Owen seemed fine at breakfast," Albus pointed out.

"And that makes cheating okay? As long as Owen's not bawling his eyes out at the breakfast table?" Rose asked.

"I'm just saying that I think there were bigger problems in that relationship than Scorpius. And I also don't think it's fair for you to hold a grudge against him when you're not the one he's done wrong to. You and him had been getting along well, hadn't you?"

"Just peachy," Rose agreed. Albus rolled his eyes at her attitude and dropped the subject. The three Gryffindors arrived at their table just as the serving plates filled.

Even though Rose tried her hardest not to look, she couldn't stop her glance from wandering over to the Slytherin table. It took her several peeks over her plate of spaghetti before she accepted the fact that Scorpius wasn't at dinner. And the fact that he was moping around his dormitory instead of eating with everyone else made Rose suddenly angry. Was she supposed to feel sorry for him?

Shortly after dinner, Rose had to meet Owen in the Entrance Hall for patrols. Unlike Scorpius, he actually beat her there.

"I'm not late!" she said, but immediately regretted it because it reminded her of Scorpius who constantly said the same thing.

"You're later than me," Owen smiled. "That's late."

"How'd you get this job, anyway?" she asked as they made their way towards the fifth floor where they would be patrolling that night.

He sighed. "I just happened to be sitting with Caitlyn when Albus came in complaining that he had to find someone to take Scorpius's patrol. He was leaning towards Scott Belby, so I figured I'd save you."

"Well thanks for that," Rose laughed.

"You better be thankful; now I have double patrols tonight!"

"Poor baby," she pouted. He grinned at her smugly and then suddenly lunged in her direction. Rose screamed as his arms closed around her and began tickling her mercilessly. She tried kicking him, but he just lifted her off of the ground and continued attacking her. "Stop it!" Laughing, he pulled away after about a minute of the torture.

"I'm sorry about last night," he said sincerely as she found her footing once more.

"It's fine," she shrugged. "We always said we'd end up snogging eventually."

"And this way, Caitlyn can't even be mad at me," he smirked.

"See?" Rose laughed. "There's a bright side to everything!"

Their patrol was relatively quiet and although Rose enjoyed Owen's company, he was no Scorpius. Scorpius had a way of making patrols seem so short. Or maybe that was just the fact that they spent most of them snogging…

Owen seemed to realize that Rose wasn't in much of a talking mood and he didn't press her. After a long hour, the patrol was over and Owen said goodbye to her with a kiss on the cheek.

As Rose made her way back to Gryffindor Tower, she couldn't help but wonder how in the world she was supposed to suffer through patrols with Scorpius for the rest of the year. They'd only been in school a little over a month and she'd already managed to make things awkward.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

Rose didn't see Scorpius at all until break the next day and even then it was just by accident. She was running late for Transfiguration and as she made her way down a deserted corridor that she typically used as a shortcut, she came face to face with him heading in the opposite direction.

They noticed each other at the same time, both of their faces morphing into a look of surprise. Rose regained her senses first and turned back around in the direction she had come. Screw Transfiguration. She'd rather skive of the class altogether than face Scorpius right now.

He, however, had other ideas. "Rose!" he called and she heard his footsteps rushing towards her. She quickened her pace. "Rose, I am begging you to stop!" Almost as if his words were a spell, Rose found herself pausing. Letting out a sigh of relief, Scorpius slowed his pace. "Thank you."

His polite words reignited Rose's temper and she felt the anger well up inside of her, an anger that her father always promised would surface one day if she truly was her mother's daughter. As if she were being controlled by something other than her own will, she spun around to face Scorpius. The smirk that he had been wearing disappeared from his face instantly when he saw the look of sheer madness on her face.

"You know what?" she cried shrilly. "There's absolutely no point in you talking! I think I know your type well enough to know what's coming." Scorpius opened his mouth to make a smart reply, but Rose held up her hand to stop him. He flinched out of the way and she continued. "Let me just take a guess at what you're about to say: You're sorry? It was a mistake and you wish it had never happened? You like me _so_ much better than you like her and you just weren't thinking straight. It meant nothing, am I right? And you want more than anything for me to forgive you. Are there any more clichés that I missed, or is that about it?"

Scorpius stared at her hard for a few seconds before he shrugged. The silence was deafening for several long moments before he spoke. "No, I think you pretty much covered it."

"Don't ever speak to me again," Rose huffed, turning around once more. She could feel her eyes burning with unshed tears, but this time they were tears of anger. How could one seventeen year old boy be so insufferable? She took slow, deliberate steps down the hall, cursing herself for hoping that he would stop her.

He didn't.

As soon as she turned the corner, she began to run.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

Although it took a little convincing, Caitlyn was more than willing to adjust Gryffindor's practice schedule so that Rose was unable to make her patrols for the rest of the week. She knew that this quick fix wouldn't be able to last for long, but she hoped that after they beat Slytherin at the first Quidditch match of the season on Saturday, Rose would have an excuse to petition Albus for a partner change.

That was a believable excuse, right?

She hadn't, however, accounted for the fact that Scorpius wouldn't stop trying to speak with her. It didn't matter whether Albus was around or not—he took every available opportunity to try and get Rose alone. He'd corner her in the hallway before classes (even if it wasn't a class they shared), he'd come to her Quidditch practices until Caitlyn spotted him and kicked him out. Albus had even said something about how Scorpius was lingering longer in the Head's Common Room, almost as if he were waiting for someone to show up.

Rose had neither the temperament nor the time to deal with him. She didn't want to hear excuses; she wanted to move on. But it's hard to make your head move on when your heart's not ready.

It was dinnertime on Thursday before Scorpius managed to come up with a workable plan. Rose was sitting with Albus and Caitlyn when he walked over. It was the first time since Monday that Rose had bothered to really look at him and even she, whose eyes were blinded by infatuation, couldn't miss the dark circles highlighting his pale face.

So what if he hadn't been sleeping? She shrugged off that fact. She hadn't been sleeping either.

He paused right behind Caitlyn, who turned around once she felt his presence. Albus and Rose just looked at him expectantly.

"I need to talk to you," Scorpius said plainly, never taking his eyes off of Rose. She found that she couldn't quite look away either. Her anger was boiling under the surface, but she didn't know how to answer. With Albus there, her hands were tied. If she refused to talk to him, Albus would get suspicious.

"Ok," Albus shrugged. "But can I finish my dinner first?" Scorpius's gaze broke away from Rose long enough to look at Albus curiously.

"He's talking to me," she groaned at her cousin's own stupidity.

"Oh," he said. "Why do you need to talk to her, mate?"

Scorpius looked at Albus, then at Rose, and then turned back to Albus. Fearing the answer that he was about to give, Rose stood up. "I tutor him in Muggle Studies," she said loudly. "Come on!"

Without checking to see whether he was following her, Rose walked down the length of the Gryffindor table and out of the hall. She didn't stop once she reached the doors to the Great Hall, but just kept walking. She didn't know where her feet were taking her, but she wasn't forced to decipher their actions as Scorpius took the lead and lead them straight out the front doors onto the grounds.

The stars were already out and twinkling and the weather was now cool enough that Rose was grateful she had remembered to put a jumper on under her school robes this morning. Without speaking, the couple took a seat by the lake. Rose had half a mind to reprimand Scorpius for his dangerous and unorthodox way of forcing her to speak with him, but she wasn't in the mood to fight today.

She was tired. She was done with all of this. She just wanted it to be over and if listening to Scorpius was what it took to have what she wanted, then she was willing to do it. She just feared that the price she would pay would be a broken heart.

"I need you to listen to me," Scorpius said, his voice outlined by the sound of waves the Giant Squid was making in the lake. "Rose, I need you to listen to me and to not interrupt."

She didn't reply, but simply continued to stare straight ahead. "And what needs to be said includes a few clichés," he continued. "But I really am sorry. And it really was a mistake that I wish had never happened. It did mean nothing—she means nothing—and I do want you to forgive me more than anything else in this world. Did I cover all of your clichés?"

"I believe so," she replied sternly.

"This isn't an excuse for what I did, but you deserve an explanation. Do you want to hear it?" He took her silence as permission to continue. "What James and Fred said to us at the Three Broomsticks messed me up. And not just because they were being pricks, but because they were being right. I'm not good enough for you, Rose. And if you and me were to do anything remotely romantic with each other, our lives would shatter around us. We'd pit our families against each other again—and I don't even want to think about Albus!"

He paused for her to speak, but she had nothing to say. She was too busy listening.

"So I got to thinking about all of this," he continued eventually, "and I couldn't make sense of anything except for the fact that I didn't care about any of it! I don't care that I'm not good enough for you or that being with you is threatening a seven year friendship with Albus. I don't care about any of that! All I care about is you!" Scorpius was ranting now and he was shaking his head back and forth as if her were trying to deny the truth that he had worked out. "And I knew that I couldn't allow myself to feel that way. Danielle was the first girl of questionable morals that I saw and I…I needed something to convince myself that I wasn't falling for you."

Silence fell between them once more and the only sound that could be heard was the chirping of crickets.

"My plan kind of backfired," he continued. "I haven't slept in days, Rose. I can't get you out of my head. The look on your face when you saw me with Danielle….I know you're not going to believe me, but I have never regretted anything more than I regret being the one to put that look of hurt onto your face. I hate myself right now and all I want is for you to forgive me if you can. I would love a second chance."

Feeling that he had run out of things to say, Rose finally looked over at Scorpius. He was looking at the lake and she had a feeling that he was too embarrassed to look at her. He would never admit it, but Rose highly suspected that he had never been that open with his feeling to anyone else and it warmed her cold heart just a little bit.

"Would you have told me?" she asked finally. He turned to look at her curiously. "Would you have told me that you shagged Danielle if I hadn't caught you?" she clarified.

Scorpius looked to be taking her question seriously, but he finally shrugged. "I don't know."

"Take a guess," she said, making it very clear that she wanted an answer. He shrugged helplessly.

"I can't possibly know that!" he defended himself. "Everything I do that has anything to do with you is a complete surprise to me! You make me act like a mad person! With every other girl I have cheated on, I wouldn't have told them in a second. In fact, I even tried to convince the ones that caught me at it that they were hallucinating. But considering the fact that you make me do the complete opposite of what I normally do, then yes I probably would have told you!"

Rose smiled slightly even though she didn't particularly want to. "I forgive you," she said. "But that's all I'm doing. The second chance thing…I need to think before I make that decision."

"I completely understand," Scorpius said hastily. "I will wait as long as you need me to."

"I don't know how long it's going to be," Rose muttered and began to stand up. Scorpius stood up with her but when she began to turn away, he pulled her back gently. The feel of his fingers around her wrist sent a thrill through her body.

"There's one more thing that you might want to think about. While you're thinking, I mean. If you decide to give me a second chance, I'm not interested in 'just snogging' or 'just shagging' or 'just' anything. Not anymore. I want you to be my girlfriend. And I know it's complicated with Albus, but….Rose, what are you thinking?"

It was only then that she realized her face was probably contorted into a look of pain. She decided that there was no point in lying. "I'm just thinking that all of this pain I've been feeling for the past few days would only be multiplied if it happened again. And while we're actually dating at that. If—not when, but if—I decide to give you a second chance, that's it. There are no third chances. Or fourth chances. Normally there aren't even second chances but you make me do nonsensical things also."

"This will never happen again," he promised. "Ever. Under any circumstances."

"Well then all I need now is a little time to think. And a little space."

"I can give you that." They stared at each other for several more seconds, both wanting to reach out to the other in some way but both knowing that they couldn't. Against her better judgment, Rose leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Before he had a chance to recover, she was gone.

**.*.**

**A/N: This chapter is shorter than usual, so I'll update faster next time! Review, please :)**


	10. Second Chances

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Second Chances_

Between school work and the extra practices Caitlyn assigned over the next two nights, Rose was surprised that she had time to think about Scorpius at all. It turned out, however, that she was better at multitasking than she had previously known. But while her distracting thoughts only added a few hours to homework, her Quidditch game was suffering substantially worse. This, according to Caitlyn, was a much more urgent matter than figuring out what to do about giving Scorpius a second chance.

While in any other circumstance Caitlyn's actions might seem callous, Rose was inclined to forgive her considering the first Quidditch match of the season was to take place on Saturday morning. Rose would have plenty of time to work out her feelings after Gryffindor had beaten Slytherin.

The problem, however, was that the very thought of the Quidditch match was now inexorably linked to Scorpius due to the fact that it was his team they were playing. And every thought of Scorpius sent a physical lurch into Rose's stomach and a volley of questions and doubts into her head.

As Rose lay in bed on Friday night (Caitlyn had demanded that the team try and get some sleep by going to bed early), Scorpius was all she could think of. It wasn't hard to admit to herself what she wanted: she wanted Scorpius and he was now offering her exactly what she had wanted since the first time they kissed. He was offering her a real relationship, even if it was one that had to be kept secret. He was offering her the title of "girlfriend" and Rose would have been lying to herself if she said that she didn't want that more than the air she was breathing.

The problem was not what she wanted. The problem was what she needed. Upon his own admission, Scorpius was not good for her. Rather than bringing out her best, he seemed to bring out her worst. When she was with Scorpius, she didn't think twice about doing things such as sneaking out of her house or helping him to cheat on his innocent girlfriends.

But he _had_ been acting differently. He broke up with Madeline for her. He promised her exclusivity—if only she would give him a second chance. But there was a tiny part of Rose that knew if she accepted his offer, she was giving him a second chance much too soon. They'd barely been doing whatever they were doing for a month and he had already cheated once. Simply saying that things were going to be different didn't make them so.

And Albus, quite frankly, didn't make things any easier. Giving Scorpius a second chance meant dating him behind her cousin's back and no doubt Albus would be hurt beyond belief if he ever found out.

Not to mention the fact that if Rose agreed to be with Scorpius, she would undoubtedly have to tell Caitlyn her decision. Therefore, she was asking Caitlyn to keep a secret from her new boyfriend.

If Albus ever found out, he was going to be mad at Caitlyn too.

Rose threw her arms over her face in frustration. She should have stopped this after that very first kiss. She definitely never should have let it get this far.

But out of all of these things that could go wrong, her biggest fear was that Scorpius was telling the truth. That he really did want to be with her more than any other girl and that he really wouldn't get bored of her as soon as something new came along. Her biggest fear was that he was serious about this—that he really wanted her as much as she wanted him. Her biggest fear was that she would refuse to give him a second chance because of everything that could go badly and miss out on an extraordinary relationship.

Her biggest fear was that she'd make the wrong decision.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

Caitlyn shook Rose roughly awake early the next morning. Dazed, she opened her eyes as far as she could long enough to register that Caitlyn was already dressed in her Quidditch gear. Rose groaned and rolled over, burying her head into her pillow. She hadn't got as much sleep last night as she would have liked.

"Up!" Caitlyn demanded. She only stayed in the room long enough for Rose to sit up before she charged out of the door, assumedly to wake up the rest of the team. Rose snickered at the thought of Caitlyn trying to wake Hugo as she began digging through her trunk for some clothes. Her Quidditch robes were in the locker room, so she wouldn't be able to change until she got down there.

After donning a T-shirt and a pair of jeans, Rose went into the bathroom in order to brush her teeth. It was only when she was standing in front of the mirror that she began to dwell on how utterly revolting she looked. Even though she knew very well that she was going to be playing a rough game of Quidditch in about an hour, she decided she should at least wear a little bit of makeup. After all, Scorpius was going to be there. Even as Rose was putting on her mascara, she was also cursing her own idiocy but she couldn't make herself stop.

It took her three tries to get her hair into the perfect ponytail.

Grateful that no one was awake to witness this moment of weakness, Rose decided it was time to leave her dormitory lest she try to put on a dress to walk down to the Quidditch pitch.

Knowing that she had some energy bars produced by her Uncle George in her locker at the Quidditch pitch, Rose chose to skip the nervous fiasco that breakfast was bound to be. Instead, she decided to beat the crowd and make her way to the pitch. As she walked, her thoughts drifted right back to where they were when she had fallen asleep the night before: on Scorpius. She just hoped that she would be able to play a decent game of Quidditch and not embarrass herself in front of the entire school.

"Oi, Rose! Wait up!" Startled, Rose turned to find Albus running towards her. Her cheeks immediately began to flush as if he had caught her undressing rather than simply thinking about his best friend.

"Did Cate wake you up too?" she scoffed as he drew nearer.

"No. She has issues coming into the Heads' Common Room though," he mused. "I'm assuming that's partially your fault for putting ideas in her head. I think she thinks I'm going to take advantage of her as soon as we're alone."

"Have you even kissed her yet?" Rose asked.

"I believe that's my business," he replied, blushing red.

"So you haven't," Rose noted. "Just kiss her already! She'll be fine after that—she's just nervous."

"Nervous?"

"Albus, she's never kissed anyone before. I'm sure it's nerve-wracking," Rose explained. She looked over to Albus and found that his eyes were widening in understanding.

"I knew she'd never had a boyfriend, but…" He grinned widely. "I'm going to be her first kiss?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "If you don't stop acting like a narcissistic teenage boy, then she might change her mind."

Albus ignored this last part. His body had physically relaxed and Rose realized that without even trying to, she had managed to alleviate some of his own worries going into this game.

"So, has Owen had the protective older brother conversation with you yet?" Rose asked as they continued on to the locker room. Albus winced.

"Not yet. And considering the fact that he's gotten farther with you than I've gotten with Caitlyn, I think we can postpone it for a while."

"You've always been friendly with him, though," Rose pointed out.

"That was before I started dating his sister…Maybe he'll take it easy on me. He hasn't had much practice in dealing with Caitlyn's boyfriends. With Lily's first boyfriend, I had no clue how to act."

"You and James have perfected the art over the years, I see," she smirked.

"And we've trained Hugo too, so you're all set."

"Lovely."

"He hasn't had much chance to hone his talent lately," Albus noted. Rose rolled her eyes. "You've been awfully distracted during Quidditch though and I assume it's not me or Hugo you fancy, so who's the lucky guy: Dylan or Parker?" Albus took her surprised look to be one of regret. "I mean, they wouldn't be my top two picks but you can't control who you like, right?"

"I don't fancy Dylan or Parker!" Rose insisted, trying hard to keep from laughing.

"So why've you been flying so badly then?"

"I've just had a lot on my mind!"

"Right," Albus agreed. "A guy!"

"So what if it is a guy, Albus Potter? It's none of your business!"

Albus looked over at her calmly. "You're forgetting that I am a guy also. What's this bloke doing that's distracting you so bad? I can't count the number of times I've come to you for advice on girls. Let me return the favor."

Rose had to admit that the idea was appealing. She could get information from Albus and she doubted that he'd ask too many questions. The problem was that if she opened his mind to the thought that she was seeing someone, he would be ever watchful as to whom that someone could be. And if people started paying close enough attention, Rose and Scorpius were as good as caught.

But if she played her cards just right, Albus really could be an invaluable source of advice.

"I've been seeing someone," she admitted, her heart beating wildly out of her chest.

"I knew it," Albus smirked. "And I'm also assuming there's a reason you can't tell me who it is?"

"He has a girlfriend," she shrugged. Albus just nodded. "Or he did."

"Did you tell him to break up with her for you? Because that's mistake number one."

"No. He told me to tell him to break up with her, but I wouldn't."

Albus smirked. "This bloke sounds like Scorpius; he's trying to manipulate you." Rose nearly lost her footing, but tried to keep her emotions off of her face. "So he broke up with this girl to be with you, I'm assuming?"

"Once I found out that he had a girlfriend, I refused to have anything to do with him until he broke up with her. So, I guess so."

"So where does the problem come in?"

"Well, we weren't exactly dating or anything, but…he cheated on me." Albus winced. "I know I shouldn't want to have anything to do with him after that, but he sounded sincere when he apologized. And he asked for a second chance." Even Rose had to admit that this sounded a bit bad in the re-telling.

Albus sighed deeply. "Okay, you need to know that what I'm about to say is not coming from first-hand experience. I've never cheated on a girl, but Scorpius is my best mate and—well, you know him. He has a bit of experience on the subject. The thing I've learned from him is, people that make it a habit to cheat don't usually apologize sincerely for it afterwards. Or if they apologize, they normally don't ask to get back together with you as a couple or anything. Because they obviously never cared about you in the first place."

"So you're saying that if he's offering me a relationship, I should give him a second chance?" Rose asked.

Albus closed his eyes and shook his head as if he were trying to clear it. "I can't rightfully tell you to get back together with a guy who's cheated on you, being your cousin and all. But people make mistakes, Rose. It's your call."

They walked in silence for a while, Rose trying to clear her head. Surprisingly, she thought what Albus had said was really helpful. Her heart was still beating out of her chest, but this time it was for an entirely different reason. She had made her decision and for the first time in two days, she was genuinely happy.

"So, what are you going to do?" Albus asked, smiling slightly. Even if he wouldn't press her for information, he was still insanely curious.

Rose did a double take. She had almost forgotten that Albus was with her. "I think I'm going to stay single for a while," Rose smirked. "I mean, why should I date a guy that's being compared to Scorpius Malfoy anyway?" She couldn't help but laugh at this last statement. Albus joined in although he was laughing more at Rose than at what she had said.

"Well good," he said just as they arrived at the Gryffindor locker rooms. They were empty, unsurprisingly, as the rest of the team was still at breakfast.

"Why aren't you eating breakfast, by the way?" Rose asked as she pulled her uniform out of her locker along with the energy bars she kept there. She tossed one to Albus and he caught it without missing a beat as he shrugged out of his jumper.

"This is the one day of the year that I don't get along with Scorpius," Albus said sincerely. "Trust me, it's better if we don't see each other before the match."

"I guess that's understandable," Rose said. As she changed, however, she couldn't help but think that after the game today, Scorpius was probably going to be madder at her than Albus. Both of them played Chaser which was going to pit them against each other directly. For the first time, Rose was grateful that Scorpius had cheated on her just so she wouldn't have to deal with the aftermath of this game.

Rose was half way through changing when Hugo and Bree walked into the locker room. Albus and Rose turned to look at them, but they seemed to be under the impression that they were the only ones in the room because as soon as the door shut behind them, Hugo pressed Bree up against the wall and began snogging her wildly. Rolling her eyes, Rose turned back to lacing up her boots. Albus, however, burst out laughing, causing the young couple to stumble apart.

"Check the room next time," Albus smirked.

"Like you can talk," Hugo accused, smiling as him and Bree walked to their respective lockers. Neither seemed the least bit embarrassed. "You're dating the Captain. I bet you use this place for snogging all of the time." Albus couldn't help but smile slyly.

"You're dating Caitlyn?" Bree asked surprised. "Now that's just not fair! Between the Heads' Common Room and the Captain's office, you've got a never-ending supply of privacy. The rest of us have to resort to empty classrooms and storage closets."

"I'm a lucky man," Albus shrugged.

As if to emphasize this point, Caitlyn walked into the locker room at that exact moment, closely followed by Dylan and Parker who were playfully shooting sparks from their wands at each other. This was not doing much to calm Caitlyn's nerves and Rose was just thankful that she had not walked in around the same time Hugo had decided to use the locker room as his own brothel.

Without saying a word to anyone, Caitlyn took a seat on the bench waiting for the rest of her team to get ready. Figuring it was best not to disturb her by talking, no one else said a word. After everyone was ready, they came to stand around her in the middle of the room. Caitlyn looked as if she were about to throw up, but she did managed to choke out a few words of advice. "Just don't screw this up, please," she muttered. Parker and Dylan exchanged smirks while the rest of the team gathered their brooms and walked out of the room.

As they walked out onto the pitch, the crowd went wild. Looking across the field, Rose found that the Slytherin team was walking towards them with Scorpius in the lead. He was the Slytherin Captain, a fact that Rose had apparently forgotten. Him and Caitlyn approached each other and shook hands without making eye contact. All friendships were somehow forgotten on the Quidditch pitch, which was one of the reasons Rose hadn't wanted to join the team in the first place.

As soon as the whistle blew, Rose was in the air almost as if it were an instinct. She might not be a fan of organized sports in general, but she did love Quidditch. The quaffle was released and Rose and Scorpius flew towards it at the same time. Their eyes locked for the briefest of seconds, but Scorpius got to the quaffle first and tore across the pitch with it.

Cursing herself for getting distracted, Rose flew after him with Parker and Hugo in formation behind her. The first few minutes of the game took some getting used to—Caitlyn had warned her of this. She wasn't used to the cheering crowd or all of the distractions so she let Parker and Hugo make most of the major moves. It didn't take long, however, for her to get used to things once more.

Taking a leaf from Albus's book, she decided that just for this one game she would leave her thoughts about Scorpius off of the pitch. This plan, of course, worked better in her head but thankfully the quaffle was changing hands so fast that Rose could barely keep up with it let alone worry about offending Scorpius too.

And he definitely didn't seem too worried about angering Rose. In fact, he was doing everything that he possibly could to knock the quaffle out of her hands, including ramming into her broomstick from the side. Getting angrier at the whole institution of Quidditch by the second, Rose played even harder, determined to prove to Scorpius that he could not control her.

She had to admit, however, that Scorpius was probably just trying to release some of his pent up frustration towards her by beating Gryffindor. Plus, Albus would never assume they were snogging if they continued to try and unseat each other.

The game was almost tied when the snitch was spotted after nearly an hour of fierce play and when Albus caught it and the stands erupted, there was a small part of Rose that felt a bit bad. She was happy they had won, but she could see by the look on Scorpius's face that his win would have meant a lot to him. He was Captain after all and he had just led Slytherin to their first loss of the season. Rose had no doubt that losing this game would not have been as big of a deal to her as it was to Scorpius.

The Gryffindor team stayed on the field for a lot longer than necessary, being cheered on by their own house and being promised a party as soon as they cleaned up. As they made their way back to the locker rooms, Caitlyn was giving the team a recap of their superb performance and even though none of them needed or wanted to hear it, they just let her talk.

Rose took a lot longer in the showers than she normally would, but she just couldn't clear her head. Even the warm water wasn't calming her as it usually did. She just kept playing Scorpius's look of dejection at losing in her head over and over again. And standing there in the shower, she knew that she had to see him. She shut off the water as if it were burning her and changed as fast as she could. She used her wand to dry her hair, but she knew it would take a while to get it completely dry, so she just left it damp and tried to scrunch it with one hand while putting on her trainers. She had to get to the Slytherin locker room before Scorpius left.

As she entered the main room, she was unsurprised to find that most of the team had already headed back to the locker room. Albus and Caitlyn were the only ones there and it seemed to Rose that they were waiting for her. They were also holding hands, something that she noted with pleasure.

"You shouldn't have waited on me," she said, trying to think of a good enough lie to explain why she wouldn't be walking back to the castle with them.

"We weren't," Albus shrugged. Caitlyn hit him on the shoulder. "What? We weren't! We thought you were already gone honestly."

Rose laughed. "Well then, I'll just leave you two to your…privacy."

"We can walk back with you though!" Caitlyn insisted. The look on Albus's face suggested otherwise.

"No, I think you're going to want to stay here actually," Rose said thoroughly amused. Caitlyn looked back and forth between the cousins, but didn't have time to comment before Rose was out of the door.

The pitch was dark as she crossed it to the other side, but the lights were still on in their rival locker room so she continued her trek. Once she arrived, she realized just how idiotic this plan was. The locker rooms were sound proof, so she had no way of knowing who, if anyone, was inside. Shaking her head at her own stupidity, she had half a mind to turn around at once.

She had only taken a few steps, however, when she turned back. She _needed_ to see Scorpius. She needed to talk to him and she didn't want to wait until morning. It had to be now and if he was still in the locker room, that would at least give them some privacy—an idea that Hugo had planted in her head a few hours earlier. She had never been more grateful for the benefits that Quidditch provided. Not that having a thoroughly private conversation was best done in the Slytherin locker rooms, but what other choice did she have?

Deciding that she should at least peek into the windows before she barged in, Rose walked around to the side. She raised her head just slightly above the sill and immediately lowered it when she realized that the entire Slytherin team was still in there. Breathing heavily, Rose collapsed onto the ground underneath the window. Well at least she hadn't barged right in…

Figuring that whatever Scorpius was saying to his team couldn't last much longer, Rose decided to wait. She had a clear view of the front door and with any luck, Scorpius would stay in his office getting things together for a few minutes before he walked back up to the castle. If it were Rose, she would want as much alone time as possible right now.

Realizing that this alone time probably didn't involve visitors from the opposing team, Rose decided to forget that particular argument and just pray that whatever was supposed to happen would happen. If it was fate for her to talk to Scorpius tonight, then he would stay put in the locker room.

It was less than five minutes later when Scorpius seemed to have released his team. Rose started when the door opened and began to count the people as they filed out of the locker room, praying that no one would look back and see her. It was probably too dark for them to notice the lonely Gryffindor anyway.

She counted each Slytherin as they walked out of the building and then re-counted when they were a few yards away. One…two…three…four…five…six….There was no seventh player. Someone was still in the locker room.

Rose tried to determine whether any of the people leaving the locker room was Scorpius, but she couldn't be positive in this light. She was almost sure that she would have recognized his body but then again, maybe she was wrong.

As soon as the six players were out of sight, Rose stood up from her hiding spot and made her way to the door. Rather than knock to announce her presence, she opened the door and walked straight in. This way, if it wasn't Scorpius who had stayed behind, she could at least pretend like she was planning on pulling a prank or something.

She shut the door gently behind her and thankfully, it barely made a sound. The main locker room area was empty, but the door off to the side that led to the Captain's office was slightly ajar. Rose walked closer until she could see around the crack in the door.

And there was Scorpius. His head was resting in his hands and he was rubbing his temples as if he had just been through the most stressful day of his life. Rose's heart fluttered upon seeing him looking so alone. She wanted more than anything to just barge in, but she didn't want to scare him. Raising her hand slowly, she knocked on the door frame.

Scorpius jumped slightly, but when his eyes met hers, he looked rather calm. "Rose," he smiled as she entered the room. It was almost as if he thought she was a dream. And sure enough, when the reality set in his face grew hard once more. "Are you here to rub it in?"

"No, but I can leave if you'd like me to." She took a few more steps into the room, making her way over to where Scorpius sat at his desk.

Scorpius looked like he was seriously debating whether to kick her out, but he eventually just shrugged. "Go ahead and say whatever you came to say." It was obvious by his tone of voice that he wasn't expecting good news. He refused to make eye contact with Rose and she couldn't help but wonder if the thought of this moment had kept him from concentrating these last few days also.

Noticing how tense his body was, Rose couldn't help but walk around behind him and place her hands firmly on his shoulders. As she began massaging him, he let out an involuntary moan that utterly tore through Rose's planned speech. She couldn't remember a word of what she had come to tell him; she was too utterly preoccupied with trying to make him make that sound once more.

"Yes," she finally said, still rubbing his back, once she remembered the gist of the conversation she had planned on having.

"Yes what?" he asked huskily, leaning in to her touch.

"Yes, I'll be your girlfriend," she said. At her words, Scorpius grew rigid and Rose stopped kneading his shoulders in fear that she had said something wrong. Slowly, Scorpius turned around in his chair to face her.

"What did you say?" he asked her, looking dead into her eyes.

"I said yes, Scorpius." Figuring that he couldn't have misheard her twice, Scorpius's face broke out into the biggest smile Rose had ever seen grace his features.

"You'll be my girlfriend?" he confirmed, standing up and grabbing each of Rose's arms.

"Yes!" she nearly shouted. Overcome with joy, Scorpius pressed his lips to hers fiercely. He lifted her off of her feet and spun her around, their lips still connected. When he finally stopped kissing her, he didn't put her down immediately but continued to stare into her eyes as if he couldn't believe what she had just said.

"You won't regret this," he said sincerely as he set her back on her feet. His arms remained around her body, however, which she was grateful for because she doubted that she would be able to stand.

"I know," she whispered, leaning in to kiss him once more. The kiss was soft and sweet and held in it was all of the desire Rose had flooding through her body. Scorpius Malfoy was no longer just a fling. He was her boyfriend. Her secret boyfriend—but somehow that seemed only fitting for the two of them. Nothing could be easy. They were going to have to work for this relationship.

But as they continued kissing, Rose couldn't help but feel like this was going to be easier than she had previously suspected. Kissing Scorpius was quite possibly the easiest, most natural thing she had ever done in her life. They stood there snogging until Rose was positive she wasn't standing on her own accord anymore and Scorpius lowered her onto a couch she hadn't realized was there.

She could feel every inch of him against her and she wanted him more than she had ever wanted anything in her life. His tongue traced the outline of her lips and she allowed him entrance. Her body was burning with desire. It wasn't much longer before Scorpius had to pull away. He was out of breath and as he sat up, he snickered slightly.

"What is it?" Rose asked, feeling slightly embarrassed. What was he laughing for?

Scorpius stared at her as if he had never seen a girl before and it made Rose feel like in that instant he saw every inch of her body and her soul. He was giving her a look she had never seen before and somehow she knew that everything was going to work out just so long as he kept looking at her like that.

Scorpius shook his head at her question. "I have to stop snogging you for a minute," he gasped and even he looked mildly surprised at his words. "I can't…um…control myself, Rose. If you keep kissing me like that we're going to go way farther than we need to before we even reach our first date."

"You're planning on taking me on a date?" Rose smirked. She highly doubted that he had ever stopped something that was about to go too far before.

Scorpius just kept giving her that intense look. "Of course," he said, pushing a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm going to do this right, Rose. It may take me a while to learn, but I am eventually going to be the perfect boyfriend."

And even though he had told her to stop, she kissed him again; suddenly her world seemed complete.

**.*..:.:.:.:.*.**

It was late when Rose arrived in her dormitory that night. As she lay down in bed, still fully clothed, Caitlyn stirred slightly from the bed next to her. She turned over to face Rose and even though she was still half-asleep, she managed to mutter, "Did you talk to him?"

"Yeah," Rose whispered and turning her back on her best friend, she suddenly knew that she had to lie. In order to keep her promise and never force Albus or Caitlyn to choose sides for her benefit, she had to lie. "I ended it."

"I'm sorry, Rose," she said. Rose didn't bother to respond and within seconds, Caitlyn was fast asleep.

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**


	11. Boyfriend Material

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Boyfriend Material_

When Rose woke up the next morning, she was at a complete loss to predict what the day would have in store. All she knew was that she felt happier than she had in weeks. Caitlyn was already gone by the time she pulled her hangings back and Rose couldn't help but praise her good luck. She had managed to get together with Scorpius right when things between Albus and Caitlyn were heating up. God willing, they would be more than enough distracted for the next few weeks—it might just take that long for Scorpius and Rose to figure out how to control their emotions in the presence of other people. Judging by the sparks that had gone flying the night before, she had no doubt that it was going to take all of her will power not to show affection for Scorpius in public. And she wasn't even the one with the hormones of a seventeen year old male.

Rose took a few extra minutes in front of the mirror to make sure that she looked perfect, but this time she didn't curse herself for doing so. She had every reason to look her best—she would be seeing Scorpius soon and now she wasn't ashamed to admit her attraction to him. Because he was her boyfriend. Scorpius Malfoy was someone's boyfriend. The thought made Rose smirk at her own reflection in the mirror.

She smoothed her hair back once more before walking down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Considering it was a Sunday, many of the students were sleeping in. Caitlyn and Albus were nowhere to be found, but Hugo and Lily were enjoying their pancakes together so Rose decided to join them.

"Morning, Rosie," Lily greeted. Hugo just gave her a dismissive wave and continued describing a dream he had had to Lily who had apparently begun fancying herself a seer. A few of her friends were listening with rapt attention as Lily tried to decipher her cousin's dream.

When Rose finally looked over at the Slytherin table, it was to find Scorpius staring straight at her. They both looked away hastily before seeming to realize that they were allowed to be caught staring now. When their glances met again, they were both smiling at their own stupidity. Rose knew that these first few days were going to be awkward in the same way that all new relationships were awkward, but she was secretly looking forward to it.

She couldn't imagine a day when she would be so comfortable with Scorpius that her heart wouldn't race when he did something as simple as meet her gaze across the Great Hall. But at the same time, her heart longed for that familiarity.

She sat through her breakfast ignoring the people around her and stealing glances in Scorpius's direction. She wanted more than anything to be able to join him and have a real conversation over their morning coffee. This was not possible, however, so she just had to settle for what she could have.

"Do you want me to do you now, Rose? Do you want to know what your dreams mean?" Lily asked, startling Rose out of her reverie. She jumped at being addressed and chancing a brief glance at Scorpius, she realized that he was laughing at her actions openly. His friends were looking at him as if he were crazy, so he seemed to decide it was time to excuse himself from the Great Hall. After looking at Rose once more, he walked out of the Great Hall, silently inviting her to follow him.

"Thanks, but I already have a pretty good idea of what my dreams mean," Rose said and walked out after her boyfriend.

Rose paused when the doors to the Great Hall shut behind her. Although she knew Scorpius had wanted her to follow him—she could just sense it—she had no idea where he had gone. There were a few people milling about but none of them were the person she was looking for and she thought it would look too suspicious to ask if anyone had seen him.

Before she could work herself into a frenzy, however, an arm reached out of nowhere and pulled her into an alcove hidden by a thin curtain right next to the door. She only had time to smile at him before the need to kiss each other overcame them. Scorpius kissed her wildly, nearly losing his balance as they stumbled into the nearest wall. A few long seconds later, Rose pulled away dizzy and breathless.

"If we don't want Albus to catch us, we probably shouldn't be snogging where anyone could see us," Rose muttered, looking over her shoulder into the hallway. People were walking by oblivious to the couple and although Rose realized that the angle the alcove was placed at hid them from view, it still made her wary.

Scorpius followed her gaze, but the look on his face clearly said he could care less about witnesses. Glancing back down at the adamant look in Rose's eyes, he groaned. "I hate it when you're right," he said.

"I know," she smiled.

"But damn it if I'm not going to spend our first day as a couple together, Rose!"

The tone of his voice made him sound like a child who was worried about missing out on a new toy. It was only then that Rose realized he had only had one official girlfriend before her and that was Madeline, who he never treated as well as he should have. He really was determined to do this right and Rose doubted she would be able to stop him even if she tried.

Her smile disappeared as she realized the impossibility of the situation and she shrugged helplessly. "Scorpius, I want nothing more to spend every moment of today with you, but how are we supposed to do that? If Albus so much as catches us within ten feet of each other, he's going to know something is going on."

Scorpius nodded. "I know. I stayed up all night thinking about this—please don't laugh at that—and I think I've worked out a plan. You and I need to convince Albus we're friends; that'll give us a little wiggle room. That way if he catches us alone together, it won't be the end of the world as we know it."

"That should be easy enough," Rose said, still trying to keep her voice down as students continued walking right by their hiding space. "You come over to talk to Albus, I join in on the conversations—we'll attribute everything else to our patrols together."

"And those, I'm betting, are about to get much more interesting," Scorpius smirked. Rose couldn't help but chuckle herself and the giddiness of the entire situation had her standing on her tip toes to kiss him once more. This time the kiss was soft and sweet, their fingers roaming over each other with touches as light as feathers.

Rose finally broke the kiss, but refused to move far enough away to take herself out of Scorpius's arms. "But what about today? I don't think we could even convince Hugo we became friends over night and he's the most oblivious person I know."

"Today we break some rules," he smiled and they were still so close that Rose could feel his warm breath against her skin.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Rose laughed.

"Just go grab a jacket," he said, pushing her slightly by her rump out of the alcove. "And meet me by the statue of that hump-backed witch on the third floor."

Rolling her eyes heavenward, Rose figured that she didn't have much of a choice but to do what Scorpius had told her. If he wanted to sneak into Hogsmeade, then she doubted she would be able to convince him otherwise. It didn't take her long to grab a jacket out of her dormitory and to meet Scorpius at the aforementioned statue.

"If we get caught, I'm saying you kidnapped me," she said sternly as Scorpius said the necessary spell to open the hump on the witch's back.

Scorpius smirked lightly. "Which do you think Albus would over-react to most? Me kidnapping you or you coming fo your own accord?"

"I think it'd be a close call," Rose muttered, dropping her bag into the secret passageway and following it down. She took a few steps forward and lit her wand as she felt Scorpius drop in after her, sealing the secret entrance after himself. He lit his own wand and the two just stood there staring at each other in the cramped corridor for several seconds. Even through the lights of both of their wands, only Scorpius's face was visible. Everything else lay in darkness. "So, what are we going to do today?" Rose asked. Snapping out of his reverie, Scorpius began to walk down the passageway. Rose followed him loyally.

"Whatever we want," he answered. "Since our last trip to Hogsmeade was…less than enjoyable, I think we deserve a second chance. That's what this whole thing is about, isn't it? Second chances?"

"Well it'd be hard to have a date worse than our first one," Rose smirked. "I'm pretty sure that one ended in you shagging someone else."

"And you snogging someone else if I recall correctly," he murmured so quietly that Rose could barely hear him.

"Are you seriously blaming me for that one?" Rose asked incredulously.

"It just wasn't very fun to watch is all," he said.

"Jealous of Owen?" Rose laughed.

"Maybe we shouldn't talk about this," Scorpius suggested, sensing the bad direction this conversation could take.

"Maybe not," Rose agreed with a smile. Scorpius smiled down at her also and as they continued walking, she felt his hand against hers. Their fingers interlaced as if on their own accord.

The walk to Hogsmeade was short. So short that Rose wished it had been longer, just so that she could hold Scorpius's hand for a little longer. She needn't have worried, however. As soon as Scorpius navigated them safely out of Honeyduke's cellar, he took her hand in his once more as they browsed the aisles of candy. Although the shop was no where near as full as it was on assigned Hogsmeade weekends, there were still a good number of customers looking around.

"What if someone sees us?" Rose asked shyly. Scorpius looked around and then looked back at Rose and answered patronizingly, "Well considering we're not invisible, I think that's highly likely."

"That's not what I meant," she said, glancing down at their hands.

"If someone sees us, let them," Scorpius answered, kissing Rose gently on the head before picking up a box of chocolates and looking at the price.

"What if your father comes walking down the street?" she asked hypothetically.

"My father isn't a fan of Hogsmeade," Scorpius shrugged. "Thinks it's haunted."

Rose looked at him speculatively. "What if _my _father comes walking down the street?"

"Then I would run in the opposite direction as fast as possible," Scorpius laughed. "But I'd take you with me, of course."

"Well, thank you," Rose said sarcastically.

"Do you want these?" he asked, holding up the box of chocolates he had been examining.

"You're going to try and buy my favor?" Rose joked. "Is only our first date, Scorpius. You might want to save your money for when you actually need to buy my love."

He laughed heartily. "I'm thinking that's good advice."

"Well judging by your past…"

"This time is going to be different," he promised, leading her out of the candy store.

"That's what all guys say," Rose mused as they made their way through the streets of Hogsmeade. Although the air was cool, it wasn't anywhere near freezing and Rose was simply enjoying the peace of the atmosphere around her. The fact that Scorpius was by her side, still holding her hand, served to warm her on the inside and out.

"I know," Scorpius groaned. "Which is probably why you don't believe me."

Rose took a while to answer. "I believe you _think_ this time is going to be different. I believe you want it to be. But it's not like I've seen proof or anything," she joked.

"I'll give you proof," he smiled, leaning in and kissing her deeply right there in front of all of the passersby.

"That's not proof," Rose answered dazedly once Scorpius had finally pulled away. "That's just talent."

"I'm talented, am I?" he smirked. Rose cursed herself for fueling his ego.

"You're more talented than Spencer," she corrected, referring to her ex-boyfriend.

"What about Wood?" he asked.

Rose rolled her eyes playfully. "I thought we weren't talking about him."

"I see the way he looks at you," Scorpius shrugged.

"You're seeing things then," Rose laughed, taking more pleasure than she should in the fact that Scorpius was obviously was jealous of Owen. "He and I are friends. Just friends." A thought suddenly occurred to Rose. "Is that why you shagged Danielle?"

"It seemed like a good idea at the time," Scorpius answered through clenched teeth.

"Backfired a bit, didn't it?" Rose chuckled.

"A bit," Scorpius agreed, his tone suddenly growing serious. "I really am sorry about that, Rose."

"I know you are," she said. "It's forgotten."

"I really don't deserve you!" Scorpius muttered.

"Well luckily for you, we're rarely in agreement on anything. So, I disagree." The couple was now walking towards the outskirts of town. They stopped by a small creek and took a seat on a nearby bench so that they could continue their conversation. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Scorpius managed to grab the courage to say what he knew had to be said. If this was going to work between him and Rose, he had to voice his own concerns.

"I know this isn't something you want to talk about," he started, "but…Rose, do you think Albus would be more mad if he found out later from someone else or if we just told him now?" Scorpius's eyes met hers desperately and she knew that he was leaving this decision up to her.

"We can't tell him," she said stubbornly. "Not now. He'd try to stop it."

Scorpius closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh. "I know he would."

"And quiet frankly," Rose added unnecessarily, "He could probably talk me out of just about anything. I just want it to be us for a while. Until we know—for sure—that this is going to work, I don't want people watching for us to make a mistake."

"No, I get it," Scorpius agreed, squeezing her hand in reassurance. "I'm just scared he's going to catch us. And it's going to be me he's mad at."

"What if we make a compromise?" Rose suggested. "We wait until Christmas?"

"To tell him?" Scorpius cried. "I think I know Albus well enough to say that if we tell him we've been secretly dating for two months, he's going to be a bit pissed."

"No," Rose corrected. "We do what you said this morning—we become friends. Get him used to the idea. You could drop a few hints that you don't think I'm a total bitch, and I could…stop calling you a prick every chance I get."

"Well that sounds lovely."

"And then we ask him over Christmas if he would mind if we dated. He can't really say no—he's dating my best mate, I should be able to date his."

"I don't know if it works that way," Scorpius groaned. "And I have a bad feeling that this plan is going to backfire."

"Do you have a better one?"

"No," he admitted.

"Well then for now, that's the one we're sticking to."

**.*.**

They stayed on that bench for hours, just talking. It was amazing really how different they were and yet how similar at the same time.

"Why haven't we tried to be friends before now?" Rose asked as they made their way down the street once more, heading for the Hog's Head. Although it wasn't the nicest pub in town, it was the one least likely to be frequented by anyone who would be friends with either Draco Malfoy or Ron Weasley. While they both admitted that they weren't worried about anyone seeing them, the thought of their relationship getting back to their families was still a little daunting.

Scorpius looked at her and his face broke into a wide grin. "I wasn't ever planning on telling you this, by the way," he prefaced.

"Well, you have to tell me now that you've said that," Rose said.

"I kind of had a little bit of a crush on you," he smiled. "I don't know when it started; probably around fifth year. But suddenly you weren't just Albus's cousin anymore and I can honestly saw I never thought we'd end up together. I figured it was just best to ignore it rather than get any closer to you."

Rose smiled. If she was being honest with herself, she had been interested in Scorpius way before the Weird Sister's concert. "So what changed your mind? Why now?"

"Why not?" he countered. "It just hit me at that concert that if I didn't take a chance this year, I wasn't ever going to get another one."

They had arrived at the Hog's Head by this point and Scorpius opened the door for her. She walked in, him trailing only slightly behind her. They ordered their food from a waitress who looked as if she had better things that she could be doing. Although it wasn't as good of a dining experience as the Three Broomsticks, the food wasn't too bad. From what Rose had heard from Neville and other Professors, the quality of the Hog's Head had improved dramatically since her parents' time at Hogwarts.

The bell above the door of the pub tinkled, signaling the arrival of another customer. Rose looked up at their entrance and quickly turned around when she found that the lady was staring directly at her. Scorpius looked at Rose curiously, but she just shrugged as the elderly woman walked in and took a seat at the nearest table to the young couple. Rose chanced another glance at the woman and to her dismay, she was still staring at the her.

Wondering if maybe the woman was an acquaintance of her parents, she looked again, but was only reassured that she had never met the woman before. She would have remembered her eccentric dress and wild eyes.

Still watching her, the woman pulled a crystal ball out of her bag and Rose's racing heart immediately slowed. She was just trying to solicit business.

"A seer," Scorpius scoffed. The woman turned to look at him and he flinched, turning away from her gaze. Rose almost laughed. He obviously wasn't the superstitious type.

"Do you want your fortune told, dearie?" The lady asked Rose. Although she was tempted, with one look at Scorpius she decided it probably wasn't a good idea to test him right now.

"No, thank you," she replied.

"Perhaps when the young man leaves you alone, then?"

"She said no thank you," Scorpius said sharply. Rose gave him a pointed look to stop being so rude and he just rolled his eyes.

"Only one galleon," the seer urged, noticing the look in Rose's eyes. Scorpius also looked across the table and his own determination began to weaken as he saw the look of curiosity in Rose's eyes. "I specialize in the reading the House of Venus," she continued. "Love, dearies. Don't you want to know your future?"

"It can't hurt, Scorpius," Rose whispered. "And she's not going to leave us alone until she says her piece."

Sighing deeply, Scorpius dug in his pockets for a galleon. "You're way overpriced," he said, laying the galleon on the table in front of the seer. Smirking, she took it and placed it in her own bag before looking into the crystal ball in front of her. A wide smile appeared on her face after several seconds, a smile that plainly said she knew something the other two didn't.

"I paid good money for this," Scorpius said impatiently. "You better start talking."

"Impatient, are we?" the seer noted. "It takes patience to make a relationship work." Scorpius rolled his eyes. He obviously wasn't looking for a lecture at the moment. Rose took his hand in hers across the table and his body instantly un-tensed as he stroked the back of her hand softly. "What do you want to know?" she asked, looking at Rose.

"Um…" Rose said, taken by surprise. She looked at Scorpius for an idea.

"Who wins the House Quidditch Cup this year?" he asked. Both Rose and the seer glared at him. He shrugged and turned back to his plate of food.

"How long do you see me and him being together for?" Rose finally asked, gesturing to Scorpius. He looked back at her, the expression on his face far from happy.

"You can't ask her that!" he complained. "She's going to jinx us!"

"The answer to that is unknown," the seer interrupted; Scorpius scoffed. "The longevity of your relationship is purely up to you—there is nothing I can do to predict where your hearts will lead you. But I sense that there will be a decision that you two will each have to make together—a choice."

"What kind of choice?" Scorpius asked.

"A choice between who you are and who you could be." Scorpius turned back to his meal once more, choosing to ignore the old bat rather than to encourage her. "Your relationship has been built on a foundation of secrets and lies," she said to Rose. Rose shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "But there is no denying that the boy's feelings for you are real."

Scorpius was once again smirking smugly and Rose couldn't help but be entertained.

"Thank you," she smiled at the seer. Seeming to sense that she was dismissed, the seer relocated to the bar.

"Well that was a waste of a galleon," Scorpius said after a while.

Rose shrugged, although she couldn't help but disagree. "Sorry, but I wanted to know what she had to say."

"I'm not blaming you, Princess," he smiled. "But you shouldn't put much stock in the words of a seer. You know that, right?"

"So I shouldn't believe that your feelings for me are real?"

He smirked slightly and Rose could tell that it was an involuntary reaction. "I shouldn't have had to pay a galleon for you to believe that."

Although it was not yet dark, they decided to make their way back to Hogwarts considering that their friends were probably starting to get a bit suspicious about their absence and they had patrols to report for that night.

As they passed through Honeyduke's, however, Scorpius insisted on buying Rose the box of chocolates he had offered her earlier. She put up a fight, but was secretly glad that he was insisting on buying her something. Even if he said it was just because he wanted to try a piece.

The next few days passed by in a blur. Rose tried to act normal around Scorpius but she was scared that someone was going to notice that something was different between the pair.

As per their original plan, Scorpius and Rose had been trying to do everything within their power to convince Albus that they were becoming friends. This wasn't too difficult considering Scorpius was having a hard time staying away from Rose. Rather than eating at the Slytherin table, he had made it a habit to join Rose, Albus, and Caitlyn for all mealtimes. Albus didn't seem to think much of this and after a few days, Rose grew comfortable enough with the situation that conversation between her, Scorpius, and Albus was able to flow easily. If Albus found anything weird about their sudden interest in each other, he didn't mention it.

The fact that Rose and Albus were so close was actually working in their favor. When Scorpius sat next to them in class or joined them in the library, no questions were asked. However, they still were not comfortable enough to go out together without Albus. That would be bound to start a few rumors.

Instead, they stole alone time whenever they could. This mostly took place during their patrol hours where they had starting sneaking out to Scorpius's office on the Quidditch pitch or during break times where they would both conveniently disappear.

It might not be the perfect scenario to begin a relationship, but it was working. And to Rose's immense delight, it didn't seem like Scorpius was losing interest just yet. In fact, his interest seemed to be sparked more than anything else. Whenever they were together, he could not resist touching her in some small way. His shoulder would bump hers, they would hold hands beneath the tables of the Great Hall, or his leg would casually brush hers as they sat next to each other in class.

It was enough to drive Rose wild and not for the first time, she began to wonder how in the world they were going to be able to keep this a secret.

Although the physical aspects of their relationship were quite enjoyable, Rose was also surprised to find how easy it was to talk to Scorpius. He cared about politics and what was going on in the world around him and he was smarter than Rose had given him credit for. They were able to hold intellectual conversations, which often turned into debates, which often turned into snogging.

And for now, all of this was okay. Rose fell asleep at night, knowing that Scorpius would be there to hold her come tomorrow. And everything was okay.

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**

**Also, I'm starting my freshman year of college this weekend so that's why I wanted to go ahead and post this chapter. The next week is probably going to be really crazy for me, but I'll post when I can. Thank you everyone for the lovely reviews; you guys are amazing! And if anyone has any college advice, I'm all ears :)**

**SarahBeth.**


	12. Temporary Goodbye

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Temporary Goodbye_

Rose and Scorpius had only been dating for a little over a month by the time that Christmas holidays were upon them. While Rose tried not to dwell over the weeks that she was about to have to spend outside of Scorpius's company, she was largely unsuccessful. The very thought of not seeing him everyday left her feeling slightly lost—a feeling that she realized was not healthy, but she was far from caring. He understood her better than anyone she knew, Albus included, and if she were being honest with herself, she feared that time apart would make him question their relationship. Rose knew he was having more trouble with the secrecy thing than she was.

That was probably due to the fact that the secrecy thing wasn't working out as well as expected. Sure, Albus still had no notion of what was going on behind his back, but Rose suspected he was one of the few people who hadn't already guessed what was happening. Scorpius and Rose had worked to feed Albus the story that they were becoming friends and he had believed them, even making comments about how proud he was that his two best friends were finally getting along.

The rest of the school, however, wasn't quite as oblivious. They knew what Albus was too blinded to see—if Scorpius was spending as much time with Rose as he was, then something was going on. For Rose and Scorpius were rarely out of each other's company these days. They spent most meal times together and studied in the library together once classes were over. Once patrols were added into this tally, it was easier to count the hours when they weren't in each others presence than when they were.

Rose doubted very much that Caitlyn hadn't guessed what was going on. She never brought the subject up, though, and Rose knew that she had made the right decision by not entrusting this information to her. Caitlyn was happier not knowing.

Rose was sitting in the library a week before the holidays, waiting on Scorpius to join her. As unnecessary as it was, they never arrived in the library together. It was better to let people think they had stumbled onto each other by accident. Although rumors might be circulating (far away from Albus, because even within Hogwarts there was a common sense of whom secrets were to be kept from), there was no need to give them any credence.

"Hey," he finally greeted from behind Rose. She leaned her head back upside down in order to see him.

"Hi," she smiled. She could see in his eyes that he wanted to bend down and kiss her just then, but he refrained and walked around the table instead, taking the seat across from her. Rose sat straight up and set her quill down, thankful for an excuse not to do work. The library was nearly empty as it were—with only a few days left of term, there was barely any work left to do. Still, to ensure maximum privacy, they were situated at a corner table far away from the circulatory desk.

"I'm pissed off at Professor Binns," he said without preamble.

"Here we go again," Rose muttered.

"No, seriously!" Scorpius insisted, dropping into the seat and letting his bag fall to the floor. "I mean he sits there reading lecture notes that he composed centuries ago, never actually addressing the class in any way whatsoever, and then gives us the hardest bloody test out of any professor here! He doesn't even cover half of the material!"

"You'd be surprised what's covered in class when you're asleep," Rose laughed. "You should have dropped the class ages ago—I did!"

"You need it to work in almost all departments of the Ministry," he groaned, running his hands through his hair distractedly. "Screw it!"

"You've only got one of his classes left and then it's holiday."

Scorpius winced. "Don't remind me! A whole holiday of my dreary family without even you to make it a bit cheerier. Spend Christmas with me, Rose," he begged for what seemed like the hundredth time. Ever since he realized he was going to be spending three weeks without her, he had suddenly become alright with the thought of his father discovering who he was dating. Although Rose was glad that he had no qualms with that particular subject, she was still a bit hesitant lest her own family find out.

"We can't," Rose sighed. "Albus _has_ to be the first one to know!" Scorpius rolled his eyes.

"I'm starting to hate Albus, you know," he said. "You're making me hate him. Rosie, let's just tell him! This isn't like how it was a month ago—I know this is going to work, you know this is going to work! He can't talk me out of this and I can take whatever he throws at me!"

Scorpius had leaned towards Rose in his eagerness and his hair was falling across his eyes. Rose leaned forward also and brushed his fringe away; he leaned into her hand lightly, savoring the feel of her skin against his.

"You're not going to be saying that when he's asking you to choose between me and him," Rose whispered.

"I haven't done anything wrong," he murmured as he leaned back in his seat. "You won't shag me." Rose rolled her eyes and Scorpius chuckled. Although it was true that Rose was still uncomfortable at the thought of sleeping with Scorpius, that wasn't why they weren't doing anything. The fault of that lay with Scorpius.

They had only been dating a week or so when things started getting heated in Scorpius's private Quidditch office. To Rose's immense surprise, Scorpius had pushed her away and gently explained that they couldn't have sex until they were in a relationship that was "open to the general public." Although it was a bizarre stipulation, Rose understood what he was saying. There was no reason to make Albus madder than he had to be when the time came. It was one thing if Rose were snogging, or even dating, Scorpius behind his back—it was another if she were shagging him.

"We'll write," Rose sighed, taking his hand from across the table. "And I can sneak out whenever I need to. You're going to Owen's party, right?" Owen's grandparents were throwing him a coming-of-age party over Christmas break. He would turn seventeen on January 2nd.

"I'll be there," he answered. "Can't we just go as dates?"

"I doubt that would go over well," she smiled. Scorpius, however, was serious.

"I'm not kidding," he said. "We agreed to tell Albus over break. This is the perfect opportunity!"

"Scorpius," she groaned.

"Fine," he relented. "But you should know that I want more than anything for everyone at this damn school to know that we are together. I'm sick of these lies, Rose!"

"I know. I am too. I just need a little bit longer. Please, Scorpius!" He rolled his eyes, but Rose could see the tension leave his face. This was an argument they'd had several times over the past few weeks and it always ended in a stalemate.

Without another word, Scorpius pulled out his History of Magic notes as Rose read through her study guide for Ancient Runes. Scorpius was still holding her right hand, so she satisfied herself by turning the pages with her left. As typically happened when the two sat down to study together, Rose found it hard to concentrate on her work. Instead, her mind was full of just how wonderful Scorpius's hand felt in hers. She could feel her pulse beginning to race as an overwhelming urge to kiss him came over her. She imagined that this happened to all couples, but then again most of them were able to act on their impulses in public to a certain extent.

She was just about to suggest that they go somewhere more private when she heard a throat clear above her. Rose lifted up her head and found herself face to face with Madeline Stewart. Scorpius looked up also, but seemed unfazed. It was only after Madeline had thrown a pointed look at their interlaced fingers that Rose remembered her and Scorpius were holding hands. As if she had been burned, Rose pulled her hand into her lap. Scorpius made no sign that he noticed anything.

"There's going to be an impromptu prefect's meeting tomorrow night," Madeline said politely once she had both of their attention. I know it's last minute, but there are a few loose ends we need to work out before break."

"Sounds good," Scorpius smiled. "We'll be there." Madeline nodded and walked off. Scorpius followed her with his eyes as she disappeared around the corner.

"Did she see?" he asked quietly when she was out of sight.

"Yeah," Rose nodded.

"Then we might just have a problem."

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

Although Rose and Scorpius had been worried that Madeline would run straight to Albus, he was acting normal at dinner and then again the next morning. She obviously hadn't told him anything and the couple prayed that she wasn't saving the information to use as blackmail later. Rose had an uncanny suspicion, however, that this wasn't the end of that particular incident.

"I really don't think Madeline would tell anyone what she saw," Scorpius said as him and Rose made their way to dinner the next night.

"Not that you'd care," Rose hissed. "You want people to know!"

"Not before we tell Albus, I don't!" he countered.

"Merlin, what if she tells him, Scorpius?"

"Rose, calm down," Scorpius sighed, taking her by her arms and pulling her to a stop. "Please, calm down!"

Rose took a deep breath and nodded her head. Chuckling to himself, Scorpius looked to make sure the hallway was clear and then gave her a peck on the lips.

They separated as they entered the Great Hall, Scorpius to the Slytherin table and Rose to find Caitlyn and Albus. Although she loved them both dearly, spending mealtimes with a couple made her feel like such a third wheel. She knew it was ridiculous to feel this way when they were her two best friends, but she did nevertheless. That's why Rose was always so ecstatic when Scorpius decided to eat with them also. It reminded Rose of a strange parody of a double date.

The prefect's meeting was right after dinner, so Albus excused himself early in order to get things together with Madeline. Rose stood to follow him a few minutes later, but found that Scorpius was no longer at dinner. He must have left with Albus.

Rose arrived early and there were only a few people already seated. Scorpius was talking to Albus up front, so Rose took the seat next to Owen Wood who was waving her over.

"Thank Merlin! A friendly face!"

"Are you experiencing a lack of friendly faces?" Rose asked with a smile.

Owen shook his head. "I am about to go crazy dealing with this coming-of-age party. I don't want to have one!"

"They threw Caitlyn one too," she pointed out. "It was a lot of fun!"

"Well I don't want one," he argued. Rose found herself tuning him out as Scorpius locked eyes with her across the room. He looked annoyed to find her sitting next to Owen and didn't acknowledge her further as he took a seat in the row behind them. "But that reminds me," he said, turning to Rose once more. "I have to ask you something."

"Serious voice," she noted. "What's up?"

He took a deep breath and then rapidly said, "Do you want to go to my party with me? As like a date."

Rose could feel her cheeks blushing to match his and she was hyperaware of the fact that Scorpius was listening to every word they said. He made a disapproving noise from behind them.

"As friends?" she clarified, more for Scorpius's benefit than her own.

"As whatever you'll agree to," he smiled.

"Friends," Rose said pointedly. She didn't see how she could not say she'd go with Owen—he was one of her best mates and it was his party. "Um…yeah. But you get to tell Caitlyn!"

Owen laughed just as Albus called the meeting to order. Rose turned around to look at Scorpius, but he was pointedly not meeting her gaze. Her anger flaring up, Rose turned back towards the front. Well if he was going to be a jerk about it, then he deserved this.

The meeting was short and sweet—highly unnecessary in Rose's opinion. But then again, it was over much too soon. As soon as Madeline had dismissed them, Scorpius was gone, leaving Rose with absolutely no doubt that he was mad at her. His early departure turned out to be a blessing in disguise, however, when Owen hugged her a second later before leaving the meeting himself. Shaking her head at her own stupidity, Rose grabbed her bag and was almost out the door when she heard someone call her name.

She turned to find Madeline motioning her over. Shit! Rose took a deep breath to steady herself, but saw no other option. The room was now empty except for the two girls and Albus.

"Do you need some help with something?" Albus asked, seeming confused by Madeline's address of his cousin. For a split second, Rose thought Madeline was going to tell him everything, but she just continued stacking her papers and shook her head.

"I just need a private word with your cousin. Nothing important. We're just a bit behind on our Ancient Runes project and I would like to finish it over break." Albus nodded and left the room.

Madeline didn't say a word after the door shut behind him, but just kept trying to organize her things. Rose watched as she stacked all of her parchment neatly and then put it in her shoulder bag. When this was done, the Head Girl's gaze met her own—it wasn't a harsh look, but a pitying one. Rose felt like a child who was about to be scolded.

"I assume this isn't about Ancient Runes," Rose finally said, needing an excuse to break the wrenching silence. There was no Ancient Runes project. Rose knew what this was about.

"Not exactly," Madeline replied and to Rose's surprise, she began laughing. "Look, I don't know what's going on between you and Scorpius, and I don't want to know. But I do want to give you some advice that I'm sure you don't want."

Rose gulped, but didn't make any move to leave. She was hanging on every word coming out of Madeline's mouth.

"I've been there, Rose," she continued. "I know what it's like. He makes you feel like you're the only person on the planet that matters. He says he's changed, and you believe him—for a month or two. Or three, in my case. But he hasn't changed. And he's not going to."

Rose averted her eyes. Scorpius did make her feel like she was the only person that mattered and until now, she had assumed she was the only one he had ever made feel that way. What if their relationship wasn't as unique as she had previously thought?

"I'm not trying to convince you to do anything," Madeline said, reading Rose's emotions off of her face. "But us girls have to stick together, right? And I'm assuming that you're keeping this from Albus. It's just…I think you need someone to tell you no. So, I'm telling you no. You're going to get hurt. And he's not going to care."

Rose jerked her head in a nod. Madeline was halfway out of the room when she paused once more and stood there for a few seconds as if fighting with herself about something. "It was you, wasn't it?" she finally asked, not bothering to look at Rose. "You're the reason he broke up with me?"

"I told him I wouldn't be with him while he was with you," Rose answered, trying to form her thoughts into coherent sentences.

"So to be with you, he dumped me," Madeline surmised. "Well, you've come closer to changing him than I have. Maybe there's hope for you after all." She walked through the door and Rose watched as it shut with a bang behind her.

**.*.:.:.:.:.:.*.**

Rather than going to search for Scorpius, Rose headed back to the Gryffindor Tower. She didn't want to see him right now. He was unjustly mad at her and she was unjustly mad at him. Until they both calmed down, they needed to stay away from each other. But as much as Rose tried not to, she couldn't stop replaying her conversation with Madeline in her head over and over again.

It didn't exactly incriminate him in any way, but it did make Rose wonder just how sincere he was being. She couldn't imagine that Scorpius would lie about his feelings for her, but she was starting to think that maybe he was lying to himself. Although he had done nothing to make her think he wasn't relationship material, the truth was that his longest relationship had lasted a grand total of three months—and that was with Madeline! What if, no matter how hard he tried, his relationships were doomed to fail? What if he broke Rose's heart?

It was the first time she had let herself think that way, but she realized now that if Scorpius did do something to hurt her it wouldn't just leave a bruise any longer. It would shatter her heart into pieces. And she didn't think she could handle that. Especially not without Caitlyn and Albus to help her.

For the first time, Rose began seriously considering whether to tell Albus about their relationship. With a distressed sigh, she collapsed onto the sofa and shut her eyes, trying to block out the rest of the world.

"I need to talk to you," Caitlyn's voice said a few minutes later. Rose groaned and opened her eyes.

"Right now?" she asked. Caitlyn nodded and looked around the Common Room. There was no one around to overhear them.

"It's about Albus," she said. "And Scorpius." Immediately, she had Rose's full attention. "He's getting suspicious, Rose. Not very, but he's started making comments. He thinks Scorpius fancies you and he's not exactly fond of the idea. I just thought you should know."

"Um, great. Thank you, Cate," Rose nodded. Caitlyn gave her one last weary glance, but then left her alone with her thoughts once more.

Rose had to talk to him. Now. Knowing that she would change her mind if she hesitated, she got off of the couch and left the Common Room. Even though she didn't know where in the hell to find Scorpius, she just kept walking. Maybe he'd find her eventually.

She walked to all of their usual meeting spots without much hope. They didn't have plans to meet tonight and she doubted that he wanted to see her anyway. That didn't change the fact, however, that Rose simply couldn't go to sleep thinking that Scorpius was mad at her. And that meant infiltrating the Slytherin Common Room.

Rose knew where the Common Room was, of course, but she had never stepped foot inside it before. And this was even further complicated by the fact that under no circumstances could anyone see her walking in to visit Scorpius. She was pretty sure that being caught in Scorpius's dormitory was enough to put the rumors to rest once and for all—and she doubted with proof like that, anyone would shy away from mentioning it in front of Albus.

But all of this aside, Rose was determined. Changing direction mid-step, she made her way to the Head's Common Room. She had to be quick—it was almost curfew and she needed someone to leave the Slytherin Common Room so that she could sneak in without being noticed. And she needed Albus's Invisibility Cloak.

"Fawkes," she panted, coming to a stop in front of the portrait of two elderly wizards that guarded the Head's dorms.

She walked in to find that their common area was empty. Not even bothering to slow down, she rushed up to Albus's room and knocked on the door urgently. He opened the door a few seconds later, looking thoroughly confused in his pajamas.

"I need to borrow the Invisibility Cloak," she said, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Why?" he asked, leaning against the door, obviously in no hurry.

Knowing from experience that she couldn't lie well in situations like this, Rose stuck as close to the real story as possible. "I have to sneak into the Ravenclaw Common Room," she lied. "To talk to Owen."

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that you two are going to his birthday party together?" Albus asked, pushing himself off of the door frame with his shoulder. He began rummaging in the trunk at the foot of his bed. The Invisibility Cloak had been in James's possession until this year when he had passed it on to Albus for his final year at Hogwarts. Rose highly doubted he had used it at all.

"What? No!" Rose cried. "I just need to tell him something? Wait, how did you know about that?"

"Scorpius," Albus said simply. "He seemed jealous." He re-emerged holding the Cloak, but didn't offer it to her. He seemed to want her to comment on what he had just said and she had a very distinct feeling that he wasn't going to give her what she wanted until she did.

"I highly doubt he was jealous," Rose scoffed convincingly. "He just isn't too fond of Owen after last week's Quidditch match. If Zabini hadn't caught the snitch right when he did, Ravenclaw would have beat their asses. Owen's too good."

"I don't know, Rose," Albus sighed, handing her the Cloak. "This wasn't a Quidditch-type jealousy. Just watch out for him, okay? I know you two are being all friendly now, but just don't get too friendly."

Not knowing what to say to that, Rose just nodded. After that, the journey to the Slytherin Common Room seemed extra lengthy. She had essentially just promised Albus the one promise she was already breaking. Shaking her head at the absurdity of the entire situation, Rose quickened her pace before she could change her mind. It was almost eleven by this time and it would take a near miracle for anyone to leave the Common Room at this hour. Rose had only been waiting there for a few minutes, however, when the door opened. Thanking Merlin, Rose climbed through the portrait hole after the two fifth year prefects had disappeared for patrols.

The Common Room was nearly empty, but Scorpius was not in there. As Rose ascended the stairs she assumed led to the Boy's dormitory, she said a silent prayer that Scorpius would be in his room. If not, she was wasting valuable time.

When she got to the door marked "Seventh Years" she only paused for a second in order to get a deep breath before opening the door. Voices that had been talking seconds before halted now as the door opened, seemingly of its own accord. Rose walked hastily to the back corner of the room in order to get out of Joshua Flint's way as he checked the door.

"What the hell was that?" he asked, peeking his head out of the door.

"Probably just that first year again," Scorpius said. Following the sound of his voice, Rose noticed that he was lounging on his bed with his hangings open and a book in his hand. Rose recognized it as a muggle book she had lent him just a few days before.

"I swear I'm going to pound his head in," Joshua said, shutting the door and making his way back to his own bed. "He walked in on me and Chelsea last week in that empty class room on the fifth floor. He's been blackmailing me ever since."

"You're letting a first year blackmail you?" Aaron Zabini laughed as he shrugged out of his shirt. Rose averted her gaze. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Chelsea's dating that big Ravenclaw bloke—I'm not chancing it." Rose watched as Scorpius's characteristic smirk appeared on his face. If these were the type of guys he had lived with for the past seven years, it wasn't surprising that he had commitment issues.

"Laugh all you want," Joshua said to Scorpius, noticing the look on his face. "But at least I'm getting some. It's been months since you came in here with a juicy story."

"Just because I choose not to share my 'juicy stories' with you, doesn't mean they're not happening." Rose rolled her eyes. It was a miracle the whole school didn't know about them if he talked like this all the time.

"Or it means they're happening with someone you don't want us to know about," Aaron pointed out. Glancing around the room, Rose realized that they were the only three guys present. Everyone else must be out after curfew.

Scorpius shook his head, but didn't comment. He turned back to his book and Aaron and Joshua changed the subject. Figuring now was her chance while the other two boys were distracted, she walked slowly and carefully over to Scorpius's bed, trying to think of how best to get his attention. She knew that there was going to be no way to do this without scaring him nearly to death, but a small part of her took pleasure in that fact.

She sat down on the foot of his bed lightly. Scorpius looked up in surprise at the unexpected weight added to his bed.

"We need to talk," Rose whispered.

Scorpius face only looked confused for several seconds, before he processed what he had just heard. "Holy shit!" he cried loudly, leaping up and closing the hangings around his bed quickly.

"What's going on in there, Scorpius?" Joshua asked, his voice full of innuendo.

"Shut up!" Scorpius cried, but he waited for them to continue talking before he turned to where he thought Rose would be sitting. "Rose?" he whispered so quietly that she had to read his lips in order to make out his words.

She slowly removed the Invisibility Cloak from around her body. Upon seeing that it was her, Scorpius relaxed a bit. He started laughing lightly in disbelief. "_Muffliato!_" Rose cried, casting a spell that would allow them to talk without being overheard. For the most part. They would still need to talk in whispers, however.

"What are you doing here?" Scorpius asked, still smiling.

"I wanted to talk to you," Rose shrugged. His smile disappeared and he laid back down. "You're mad at me," Rose pointed out. "About Owen."

"I'm not mad at you," he groaned, running his hands across his face in frustration. "I'm mad at Owen. And I'm mad that I'm mad at Owen because I have no right to be. It's not like he knows you're off limits."

"Owen doesn't like me like that!" Rose insisted. "And if you hadn't stolen his girlfriend, then maybe we wouldn't be having this problem."

Scorpius chuckled lightly once more. "Karma's a bitch," he agreed. "But you're wrong—Owen likes you."

"No, he doesn't!" Rose cried.

Scorpius sighed, but he knew it was a lost cause. "I'm sorry I've been a jerk today, Rosie," he said, pulling her wrist so that she had to take a place lying next to him in the bed. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and she rested her head on his. It felt so nice just to be held.

"We can't keep doing this forever, can we?" Rose asked desperately.

"No, Rose. We can't," he agreed. That was all either of them needed to say. Something was about to have to change, starting with the secrecy. Starting with Albus. But that was an issue for another day. "But just so you know, I was planning on asking you to Owen's party. Like a real date that people could know about. You complicated that a bit." Rose groaned.

"You could have warned me about that."

"No I couldn't've. If I had asked you in front of Albus, the look of shock on your face would have been enough to convince him that we weren't doing anything behind his back."

"Well, that's actually rather ingenious," she admitted after a few seconds. "Sorry I ruined that."

"There's something else I have to tell you," Scorpius said. "Another reason why I was planning on asking you to that party. Albus wants me to take Lily."

"What?" Rose cried. She didn't think she had ever heard anything more ridiculous than that.

Scorpius just looked at her sadly. "I think he thinks I like you," he said as if it were the most ridiculous thing in the world. "He doesn't want me to take you and Lily's apparently been running around complaining about how there's no one she can go with. I don't think Albus is going to take no for an answer."

"He's not. Not if he's that determined," Rose agreed.

"So I'm going on a date with Lily," Scorpius mused.

"And I'm going on a date with Owen."

Scorpius was suddenly overwhelmed with the humor of the entire situation and bust out laughing.

"What is so funny?" Rose demanded, but she couldn't help smiling herself.

"We're each going on a date with our best friends' siblings. And both of them are encouraging it. Something's wrong with this picture."

"I think a lot is wrong with this picture," Rose smirked. "But I should go," she shrugged.

"No," Scorpius groaned, pulling her back down next to him.

"I've got to, Scorpius," she sighed.

"No you don't," he grinned, pulling her even closer to him and kissing her. And as they lay there, Rose forgot completely why it was inappropriate to sleep in your secret boyfriend's bedroom. Instead, she just kept kissing him.

**.*.:.:.:.:.:.*.**

The Hogwarts Express was loaded at the end of the week to take home all of the students who wanted to leave for Christmas holidays. Rose entered the train with a deep-seeded regret in her stomach. Maybe it would have been better if her and Scorpius had just stayed at school together. She began to feel guilty for thinking like this, however. She _did _want to see her parents.

When she began to think about her mother, she also began to entertain the thought of telling her about Scorpius. And the more she thought about this, the more she thought it was a good idea. Hermione would not judge her and she would probably be able to provide some much needed advice.

Feeling much better, she found an empty compartment and was eventually joined by Caitlyn, Albus, Hugo, and Scorpius. Although Scorpius and she could talk to each other, there was no time for them to speak privately. So when Rose stepped off of the Hogwarts express at King's Cross Station, they went their separate ways with nothing more than a smile.

**.*.**

**A/N: So, I got that out faster than expected :) Review, please!**


	13. A Safe Haven

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_A Safe Haven_

The one thing that Rose was enjoying about Christmas vacation was the fact that she wasn't being forced to wake up early for classes or Quidditch practice. Those extra hours of rest were coming in handy considering the fact that she had suddenly become an insomniac. The guilt and the stress of her relationship with Scorpius were finally getting to her—she now understood why he had been urging her for honesty the past few weeks. If he was feeling half as guilty as she was, then she was sorry she had ever pushed his feelings aside.

Christmas had been an enjoyable affair with her family, but Rose wanted more than anything to be able to talk to Scorpius face to face. They had exchanged a few owls back and forth, but it wasn't the same. It was this fact more than anything else that made her excited for Owen's party the next day. She would finally be able to see Scorpius then, even if they were being fored to go with different people.

Her lack of sleep could also be accredited to her anxiety over telling her Mum about Scorpius. As soon as she had seen her mother after stepping off of the Hogwarts Express, there was no doubt in her mind that she needed a little motherly advice.

Figuring that there was no point in waiting any longer (she would be returning to Hogwarts in less than a week), Rose stepped out of her room early in the morning, still in her pajamas. She had absolutely no clue what to expect, but she now knew that she was ready to face it. She needed Hermione to tell her what to do, just this once.

Rose was so lost in her own thoughts as she made her way down the hall that she almost didn't notice Albus who was sitting on the floor in front of Hugo's bedroom, knocking on the door wearily as if he had been doing so for hours.

"What are you doing here?" Rose asked. Albus stood up upon noticing her presence and tried to regain some composure.

"Hugo and I were supposed to meet Parker and Dylan in Diagon Alley ten minutes ago, but he won't wake up and his door's locked!"

"He can't hear you knock," Rose laughed, pulling her wand out of her back pocket and flicking it casually at the door before explaining. "He sleeps with an Imperturbable Charm on the door—Crookshanks has made it his life's goal to annoy Hugo; it's the only way he can get any sleep." As if to emphasize this point, the mangy old cat walked by at that very moment, giving Hugo's door a hateful glance.

"I wish I'd woken you up twenty minutes ago," Albus grimaced. "Nice pajamas, by the way."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Sorry, but I wasn't aware we had company. I'll go change."

"Don't bother," he said, stopping her. "I'm leaving as soon as Hugo gets up. Hugo!"

"What?" the boy said grumpily, opening the door so suddenly that both Albus and Rose jumped. "Nice hair, Rosie."

Rose groaned and disappeared back into her room where she put on clothes and brushed the tangles out of her hair. Figuring that she might as well make use of the time that she was trapped in here, she began packing a bag to take over to Caitlyn's where she would be spending the night. She was just zipping her party dress into a garment bag when there was a knock at her door.

"Come in," she said and Albus let himself in.

"He's finally up and getting ready," Albus smirked, taking a seat on the foot of Rose's bed. "Where are you going?"

"Caitlyn's," Rose answered, taking a seat next to him on the bed.

"Oh," Albus said and suddenly grew very quiet. Rose smiled slightly. It was so funny watching Caitlyn and Albus whenever the other one was mentioned. Especially in front of Rose, they were reluctant to talk about the fact that they knew each other at all—much less that they were dating. It was almost as if they thought Rose didn't want to hear it.

"So, are things still good with you two?" she asked. Albus looked up at her sharply.

"Of course they are! Did she say they weren't, because—"

"No, Albus, she didn't," Rose chuckled. "But you won't tell me anything about your relationship unless I ask."

"It's not that I'm keeping it from you, but it's awkward. She's your best mate!"

Rose laughed. Albus was normally very open about his relationships with Rose. He would usually give her all of the gory details (minus the sex which he thought was too explicit for virgin ears) and it was a bit odd not to be in the loop this time. "But you're happy?" she clarified.

"I am," Albus smiled goofily. "Really happy."

"I'm glad," she smiled.

Rose's door suddenly banged open and an annoyed Hugo stood there, still looking half asleep. "I'm ready to go. But how are we getting there because you know I can't Apparate, right?"

"I'm driving," Albus smiled, pulling a set of keys out of his pocket. "Got my license last weekend."

"Merlin!" Rose cried, shaking her head.

"Sweet!" Hugo said, suddenly becoming much more awake.

"Does Mum know about this?" Rose sternly asked the pair of them, eyeing the keys as if they were a bomb waiting to go off.

"Chill out, Rosie," Albus said. "I passed the test and everything. Dad took me right before Christmas. It's all legal!"

"You still need to clear this with Mum," Rose told Hugo forcibly.

"Fine," he groaned and stepped out of the room, Rose and Albus on his tail. They found Hermione in the kitchen, packing away some of the platters that she had brought out for Christmas.

"Mum, me and Albus are going to Diagon Alley," Hugo announced before Rose could say anything.

"Okay, sweetie," Hermione said without even looking up. Rose cleared her throat loudly and her mother looked up just in time to see Rose throwing Hugo a dirty look. "What?"

"Albus is _driving_ them to London," Rose said. Hermione looked surprised for only the briefest of instants before looking over at Albus who seemed to find this situation enormously amusing.

"It's legal!" he said, pulling out his wallet and showing her the license. "Not everyone's as terrified of cars as you are, Rosie."

"Just be careful," Hermione said and Hugo and Albus shot for the door. "You really should consider getting a license too, Rose. It'll come in handy. Hugo, however, he's going to stick to Apparition. If I learned one thing from your father, it's that driving can be a hazard in the wrong hands."

"I don't like cars," Rose said, taking a seat. Hermione nodded and turned back to her dishes distractedly.

"I should have done a better job teaching you about muggle things. Too late now, I suppose." Hermione continued to pack up her Tupperware as Rose tried to figure out exactly how to say what she needed to say next.

"Mum, I need to talk to you," she said softly.

"Oh, um hm," Hermione answered distractedly.

"Mum!" Rose said more forcibly. Hermione took one look at her daughter's face and realized that it was serious.

"Okay, I'm sitting down," Hermione said, taking a seat next to her daughter. Rose opened her mouth several times, but she couldn't find the right words. "Is this about a boy?" Hermione asked knowingly. Rose nodded. "Are you nervous about your date with Owen tomorrow, Rosie? Because I've been owling Katie and she said that Owen's very excited and—"

"Mum, no," Rose groaned. "Me and Owen are just friends. I actually…already have a boyfriend." A look of comprehension dawned on Hermione's face.

"Hugo doesn't know about this, does he?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"_He's_ actually not the one I'm worried about," Rose winced.

"Albus," Hermione smiled lightly. "I figured we'd get here one day. I wouldn't worry about it though, Rose. I mean, he beat you to it. He's dating Caitlyn, right? If you're dating one of his friends, then—"

"It's Scorpius Malfoy," Rose interrupted.

Years of working for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement came in handy as Hermione used all of her training in order to keep her emotions off of her face. "Well, I wasn't expecting that one. I've always been under the impression that you and Scorpius didn't exactly see eye to eye."

"I know, I know," Rose cried. "But I really like him, Mum, and he treats me well. We've only been dating for a month but I really think this is going to work out."

"Then I trust your judgment," Hermione said after a smile. "You're a bright girl, Rose."

"But…Albus," Rose murmured.

"Is Scorpius pressuring you to keep your relationship a secret?"

"Of course not! He's the one pressuring me to _tell_ Albus!"

"Then, I have to say that I agree with Scorpius on this one. Albus deserves to know."

"I know he does," Rose said, finally admitting the truth that she had been hiding from herself. "Mum, stop Al when he drops Hugo off. I need to talk to him." Hermione nodded and Rose headed up to her room in order to practice a speech that she was sure she would forget as soon as Albus was standing in front of her.

A few hours later, a soft knock sounded at her door. Rose's nerves, which were already stretched to a breaking point, nearly shattered. She honestly thought she was about to start hyperventilating as the door opened.

"Hey," Albus greeted, staring curiously at her flushed face. "Your Mum said you needed to talk to me?"

"Yeah," Rose answered breathily. "I do."

Albus looked over at her warily and then took a seat on the bed, waiting for her to say something.

"I think I like Scorpius," she said quickly, taking a deep breath as soon as the words were out of her mouth and then holding it, waiting for him to say something. He didn't immediately start yelling which Rose took as a good sign, but he didn't say anything else either.

"Rose," he said softly. She couldn't judge any emotion in his voice, but she was unwilling to look at him. "Look at me," he chuckled.

His laugh caught Rose's attention and she looked at him for the first time. His elbows were resting on his knees and he looked a little worn, but other than that everything seemed normal. "I'm not mad," he clarified.

"Good," Rose sighed, relaxing visibly. "Because—"

"But if you're asking me to support a relationship between you two, it's not going to happen."

"What?" she asked, suddenly taken aback.

Albus rolled his eyes. "I've already had this conversation with him, Rosie. I don't want you two dating. I know Scorpius thinks he likes you now, but that'll change. It may not be today or tomorrow, but give it a month or two. He cheated on Madeline, did you know that?"

"He cheated on…?"

"Madeline, yeah. Apparently he hooked up with some girl the night of the Weird Sisters' concert."

"Lovely," Rose replied, making a mental note to kick Scorpius's ass for telling Albus that.

"I'm glad you two are friends," he continued. "And I realize that I can't tell you what to do—"

"Damn right you can't!"

"—but I _can_ tell Scorpius what to do. Trust me on this, Rose—you're better off without him."

"How can you say that?" Rose demanded. "He's your best mate!"

"He's a good guy, but he's not for you. I know how he treats women," Albus said, standing up and facing her. His face was lined with frustration. "I can't listen to him degrade you—I won't. Do you realize what people would think if you dated Scorpius Malfoy? They'd think you were a slut! I love you more than anyone in the world, Rose—I can't let that happen."

"I can take care of myself!" Rose cried, standing up herself so that the two cousins were nose to nose.

"No, you can't," Albus said softly, his anger beginning to dissipate. "What about Owen, Rose? I like _Owen_."

"Great!" Rose sighed, collapsing back onto her bed. Albus sat down beside her and put his arm around her shoulder.

"Just forget him, okay? Because if you don't forget him, Merlin knows he's going to forget you anyway. You're too good for him. Please, Rose, don't be mad at me for this. I just…I can't watch you get hurt like that."

"You know I could still date him, right? Just because you say I can't, doesn't mean I won't."

"I'm very well aware of that," he said, rolling his eyes. "But my advice is to just forget it."

Not knowing what else she could possibly say, Rose kept her mouth shut even as she felt tears brimming in her eyes. Albus really wasn't even going to consider the thought of the two of them together. They obviously couldn't tell him the truth now—he'd be beyond furious—and if they pretended to start dating anew, he wasn't going to be happy about that either.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, kissing her lightly on the forehead before walking out of the room. Rose was left feeling more broken, guilty, and alone than ever. She eyed her overnight bag that was lying on the floor and wished more than anything that she could see Scorpius just once before the big party.

An idea suddenly came to Rose and she rushed over to her desk and pulled out two pieces of parchment. The first she addressed to Caitlyn and the second to Scorpius.

She wrote the letter to Scorpius first.

_Scorpius,_

_I need to see you _right_ now! I can't stay in this house for another second. I know your parent's don't know about us, but I really don't care at this point. If you don't want to tell them, we can say we're working on an Herbology project but I just really want to be with you._

_Please respond quickly,_

_Rose_

She tied this letter to the owl her mother had given her when she started Hogwarts named Gideon, and released him out the window. If he made good time, she should have an answer within an hour.

She picked up her quill once more.

_Cate,_

_I know I was supposed to be over at your house hours ago, but something came up. I'm incredibly sorry, but there's something I've got to do. If I'm not at your house tonight, then I'll be there first thing in the morning. I promise! Cover for me, please! _

_Thanks,_

_Rose_

She sent this letter on its way using Hugo's owl and then she waited. Just as she'd expected, Scorpius's reply was promptly within the one hour mark.

_Rose,_

_I told my parents about us the day we got home. I couldn't keep a secret like that from them. And my Mum wants to meet you, so come on over. You are welcome to stay as long as you like. Apparate to the front gate. I'll be waiting._

_Scorpius_

Smiling to herself, Rose grabbed her overnight bag and rushed downstairs. "I'm going to Caitlyn's!" she called to her Mum in the kitchen. She didn't even wait for a reply before Disapparating, bags and all.

She had only been to Malfoy's house once before and that had been to a party Albus had been invited to. Nevertheless, she remembered where it was well enough to get there safely. As soon as her head cleared from Apparating, she saw Scorpius leaning against the front gate, looking as casual as ever.

The two smiled at each other coyly before Scorpius pushed himself off of his perch and kissed her deeply. It had been nearly two weeks since they had last kissed. Rose let her bags fall out of her arms as she put her hands to better use.

"I've missed you," Scorpius said once they finally pulled apart, their foreheads still resting on each other.

"I've missed you too," Rose sighed, kissing him once more before pulling away and picking up her dropped bags. Before she had even stood up straight, Scorpius had taken the bags from her.

"What's going on?" he asked worriedly as they made the long walk up to his house.

"I talk to Albus today. About us." Scorpius took one look at her face and immediately started doing damage control.

"I wish you'd told me and we could have let him know together. But at least he knows now. I mean, he can't stay mad forever, you know."

Rose shook her head. "I didn't tell him we were dating. I told him I liked you."

Scorpius nodded his understanding. "I'm taking it didn't go well?"

"He wasn't mad," Rose shrugged. Scorpius waited expectantly. "Well, he wasn't mad that I liked you. He was kind of mad when I mentioned dating you. He said you'd talked to him about it too."

"I did. About two weeks ago. I just thought I'd try to introduce the subject. He shot it down pretty fast. It was the biggest row we've ever had. I thought he might understand it a bit more coming for you, but I guess not."

"You can't really blame him," Rose shrugged. "He's the one you've been telling all of your dirty little secrets to over the years." Suddenly remembering her conversation with Albus, she hit Scorpius hard on the shoulder.

"Ow," he laughed. "What was that for?"

"You told Albus you hooked up with someone at the Weird Sisters' concert? Are you crazy!"

He chuckled lightly. "In my defense, that was way before I knew I actually had legitimate feelings for you," he said, rubbing his arm where she had hit him. She had a feeling he was just doing that for show because her hand was throbbing a bit more than she thought his arm was.

"And how long did it take you to figure your feelings out exactly?"

Scorpius paused for a second on their way to his house and chuckled lightly. "Not as long as you'd think." Without waiting for Rose to catch up to the conversation, he continued on. "I should probably go ahead and apologize for my mother," he said.

"Why?" Rose asked worriedly, running to catch up with him. "Is she not happy with you dating a Weasley? I'm imposing, aren't I? I should just go!"

"Calm down," Scorpius laughed. "She doesn't care who your family is. I'm apologizing because I know she's going to go crazy when she sees you. I didn't exactly have time to warn them you were coming—don't look at me like that, she's going to be glad you're here. She's talked of nothing but you since I told her. I think she's just looking forward to having another girl around. It's just been me, her, and Dad forever."

"What if they don't like me?" Rose asked, voicing the first coherent thought that came to her mind.

"Rose, they're going to love you," Scorpius smiled. "Trust me."

By this time they had reached the door and Scorpius opened it for her even though his hands were still laden with her belongings. Almost immediately, a house elf was standing there ready to take the luggage. Scorpius handed it over without blinking an eye.

"Thank you, Lolly," he said. "I'd just move those out of the way for now—I don't know where Mum wants to put Rosie here." The house elf named Lolly nodded and then disappeared around the corner. "Come on," Scorpius said, taking Rose by the hand. "Let's go find my mother." If Rose wasn't mistaken, he seemed a bit eager to show her off.

"Mum!" he called.

"I'm in here, sweetie," she replied. Her voice echoed off of the walls around them and made it almost impossible for Rose to tell where the voice was coming from. Scorpius, however, didn't seem to suffer from that same problem and led Rose down a hallway into the living room where his mother was sitting with a book in her hand.

They paused at the door and sensing her son's presence, Astoria Malfoy turned. Upon seeing Rose she eagerly stood up, dropping her book onto the floor in her haste to get to her son and his girlfriend.

"You must be Rose!" she cooed, embracing Rose before she could answer.

"It's nice to meet you, Mrs. Malfoy."

"Call me Astoria," she said, pulling away. "I didn't know you were coming. If I had, I would have prepared something special for dinner!" she glanced at Scorpius accusingly as she said this.

"She just told me a few minutes ago that she was coming, Mum," he replied.

"How long are you staying, dear?"

"Oh, well…"

"I was kind of wondering if she could stay the night," Scorpius interrupted. "In a different bedroom of course, but…" He shrugged, running out of excuses. "I haven't seen her in two weeks."

To Rose's surprise, Astoria smiled. Never in a million years would Rose's parents let a boy sleep over at her house unless he agreed to share a bed with Ron in order to prevent any…extracurricular activities. Not for the first time, Rose cursed the double standard that existed between raising a son and raising a daughter.

"That's perfectly fine," Astoria said. "I could get some of the house elves to go set up the guest wing, I suppose."

"Or she could just stay in the spare bedroom by mine," Scorpius argued. "It's cold and dingy on the guest wing."

Astoria looked back and forth between the young couple. "Which would you feel more comfortable with, Rose?"

Rose opened her mouth to respond, but Scorpius interjected. "She's only asking for propriety's sake. The guest wing is barely fit for human habitation. You're staying in the spare bedroom."

Astoria smirked at her son. "I believe this is Rose's decision to make."

Rose smiled. "I'll stay in the spare bedroom," she said.

"Ok, Scorpius show her where she's staying. Dinner's at six. Oh, and someone's going to have to tell your father about this." Scorpius sighed deeply, but began leading Rose from the room nevertheless.

"Come on," he said, taking her hand in his.

"Does your dad not want me here?" Rose asked, her nerves rising once more.

Scorpius groaned, but shook his head. "It's not you he's worried about. It's your dad. I told them that your parents probably don't know about us."

"Great!" Rose said sarcastically. "Now your parents think I'm ashamed to have you as a boyfriend."

"They do not," Scorpius defended. "I told them the whole story. They understand…to a certain extent."

"I told my mum," Rose added after a few seconds of walking in silence. "She understands too…to a certain extent."

"I imagine your parents have more loyalty to Albus than mine do."

"I imagine you're right."

Scorpius turned a corner and suddenly came to a dead halt. Rose ran into him and looked around curiously until she spotted the cause of Scorpius untimely stop. Draco Malfoy was standing just a few feet in front of them and as soon as Rose saw him, she couldn't help but think about all of the horrible things she had heard about him from the people at Hogwarts. Rose was suddenly scared he was going to start yelling.

Instead, he looked at her calmly and arranged his face into what resembled a grin, even if it was forced. "Hello, Rose," he said, bowing slightly. "It's such a pleasure to have you in our home. Scorpius has done nothing but talk about you since he stepped off of the Hogwarts Express."

"Dad," Scorpius groaned.

"A word, if you'd please," Draco said sternly, motioning his son over. Scorpius only hesitated for a second before walking over to his dad. Draco placed his hand on his son's shoulders and turned him so that the pair was facing away from Rose.

"Does her father know that she's here?" Draco asked in a whisper. Rose knew that he must realize that he could be heard, but she didn't bother to mention it.

"No," Scorpius muttered helplessly. "But it's just for one night." Draco sighed deeply and then turned once more to Rose.

"It isn't that I don't want you here," he explained to her. "And I don't blame _you_ for this." He looked over at Scorpius pointedly. "It's just that this situation is delicate. Do you plan to be with my son for a while?"

"Dad!" Scorpius groaned.

"Yes," Rose answered firmly.

Draco smirked. "I thought so. And one day I suppose you _are_ going to tell your parents about him—"

"Of course I am!" Rose interrupted. "My mum knows. It's not them I'm trying to keep it from."

Draco nodded. "I understand that," he said. "But you must realize that if your father thinks I have been supporting your secrecy by offering you a place in my home on the holidays—your father is not fond of me to begin with. I don't need to give him more reasons to hate my family. Or my son."

Rose suddenly felt ashamed. "I understand," she said sincerely. "I'm so sorry."

Scorpius rolled his eyes from behind his father, obviously aggravated at him for not welcoming her with open arms. Draco walked forward and placed a hand on Rose's shoulder. "It's nothing to be sorry for. It's a pleasure to have you here. Just next time, let your parents know. Maybe we could even invite them along," he chuckled at this last statement before squeezing her shoulder gently and continuing on down the hall.

"Sorry 'bout that," Scorpius muttered.

"It's fine," Rose smiled. "So, where am I staying?"

The spare bedroom turned out to be larger than Rose's room at home by far. She was actually surprised by the sheer enormity of the place—her parents weren't exactly poor but this manor put even their mansion to shame.

"It's not much," Scorpius said sarcastically, noticing the pleased look on her face. Rose hit him. "But it's only one night." Her bags were already waiting for her at the foot of the bed. She took a seat on the bed as Scorpius sat down in a spinning chair in front of the desk. He began spinning in it immediately.

"So what do we do now?" Rose asked eventually. "About us. Albus obviously isn't going to support this. Ever."

Scorpius stopped spinning and looked over at her sadly. Then, he shrugged. "I'm out of ideas, Rose. We can either come clean or keep it a secret until someone else spills the beans."

"Why is it that _I_ always have to make the decisions in this relationship?"

Scorpius smirked. "This time it really is your call. I think I'm past the point of no return—no matter what we do, Albus is going to hate me. I've faced that fact and now you have to decide what's going to be best for _you_. He can write me out of his life, but he's stuck with you."

"Thanks," Rose grumbled.

"You know what I mean, though," Scorpius sighed. Rose nodded sadly.

"Do you seriously think that no matter what he's going to hate you now?" Scorpius's silence was answer enough. "You told me a few months ago that Albus's friendship was worth more to you than anything. I'm assuming that hasn't changed?"

"Of course not!"

"Then—and I'm sorry, but I have to say this—would it be better if we just break up?" Scorpius rolled his eyes. "I'm not saying I want to, but—"

"I made my choice months ago, Rose. Sure, I didn't expect it to be so final, but it's been made. I'm not turning my back on you now." Rose's heart flooded with emotion as he said those words. "And there's still a chance that if Albus finds out, I can salvage this. My intentions with you are not what he's used to seeing from me. I act different with you than I have with any other girl—even Albus would notice that if he took the time to look. But I don't think telling him now is going to earn us any favors. It's too late."

"So, we're just waiting?" Rose confirmed. "Again?"

Scorpius shrugged. "I'm terrified of what Albus is going to do to me when he finds out. I seriously stay up nights thinking about it. But I don't see another choice right now."

**.*.:.:.:.:.:.*.**

Dinner that night was a casual affair in which Rose got better acquainted with the whole Malfoy family. Draco was a bit stiff around the Weasley in the room, but Rose supposed that was only to be expected.

After dinner, Astoria showed her where she could take a shower and Rose was surprised to find a set up similar to that of the prefects' bath at Hogwarts. Even though she was eager to get back to Scorpius, she took her time relaxing in the giant bath tub.

Once she was done, she went back to her room and toweled dried her hair, making sure that it looked sufficiently sexy and tousled before walking down the hall and knocking on Scorpius's door.

"Come in," he called. Rose opened the door to find that he was already lying in bed, flipping through a Quidditch catalog.

"Did you not get all of the Quidditch supplies you wanted for Christmas?" she asked, pausing in the doorway.

"I did," he replied, sitting up. "But I didn't get you."

Rose smirked. "If you talk to every girl at Hogwarts using lines like that, then I'm honestly not surprised you've managed to shag half of seventh year."

"It's a gift," he smiled. "Are you going to come in or not?"

"Well, actually I was just coming to say goodnight," she smirked coyly.

"Like hell you were," he smirked in return, grabbing his wand off of his bedside table and using it to shut the door behind her. Rose rolled her eyes as she made her way to his bed and lay down next to him on top of the covers.

"So, I think we need to set up some ground rules for tomorrow," he said, setting his magazine down on the side table. Rose snuggled deeper into his chest as weariness began to overcome her.

"Tomorrow?"

"Owen's party," he reminded her. "Now, listen to me. His arms are not to drift below your waist at any time, do you understand? If they do, come find me and I'll kill him for you. Also, under no circumstance are you to kiss him."

"Me and Owen are just friends," Rose said for the second time that day.

"_I_ know that and _you_ know that," Scorpius said. "But I don't think Owen knows that."

"Fine," Rose groaned. "But you can't do anything with Lily either!"

"Yeah, that's likely," Scorpius laughed. "If Albus was okay with me hooking up with his family members, we wouldn't have a problem."

"I really do think Lily has a crush on you though," Rose said, her eyes closing sleepily.

"I know she does," Scorpius smiled. "Albus does too. I don't know how I get myself into these messes."

"Well, I'm not going to kiss Owen," Rose promised. "Unless provoked like last time."

Smirking, Scorpius lifted himself up so that he was hovering just above Rose. He leaned in and gently kissed her on the lips. Rose deepened the kiss and was surprised to find that after two weeks, this still felt natural.

A knock suddenly sounded at the door. "Master Malfoy?" a squeaky little voice asked. Scorpius jumped off of Rose so fast it was like he had been stung. She giggled slightly as Scorpius began smoothing out his pajamas.

"Is that Lolly?" Rose asked.

Scorpius grimaced. "It's my mother interfering," he said. "But yes, that is Lolly."

"I better get to my own room," Rose smiled.

Scorpius sighed. "I'll see you in the morning. Good night, Rose." With one last look at him, she Disapparated to the next room. As she lay down in bed, she took comfort in the fact that she was about to fall asleep closer to Scorpius than she had been in weeks.

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**


	14. Shattered Secrets

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Shattered Secrets_

Rose left the Malfoys' early the next morning, exchanging only a swift kiss with Scorpius before she Disapparated. She'd see him at Owen's party that night and she wanted to get to the Woods' before any of her family found out that she hadn't spent the night there. With Albus and Caitlyn dating, there was no telling when he would deem it necessary to show up for the party.

Rose Apparated right outside of Caitlyn's bedroom in order not to wake her up. The two overnight bags she was holding threw her balance off, however, and she came crashing to the floor. She still hadn't completely mastered the whole Apparition thing. She picked herself off the ground and dusted her clothes needlessly before opening the door to Caitlyn's room. To Rose's surprise, Caitlyn was already awake. She was still in her pajamas and her hair was all over the place, but she smiled when Rose walked in.

"Spill," she said immediately. "I'm not keeping your secrets for free. Where were you last night?"

Rose smirked, but she knew that she couldn't tell Caitlyn. When Albus and Caitlyn had gotten together, she promised herself that she would never pit them against each other. She wasn't about to start now. "I can't tell you."

"You were with Scorpius, weren't you?" Caitlyn accused, walking over to her closet and beginning to pull out dress after dress. Rose could only assume she was trying to pick out one to wear that night.

"I can't tell you," Rose repeated.

"Why won't you just admit it?" Caitlyn groaned. "I'm not completely oblivious! Everyone at school is talking. Just because they don't talk in front of Albus, doesn't mean they're not talking to me. I know I'm right about this!"

"No, you don't know you're right," Rose said hastily. "And we're going to keep it that way!" Caitlyn looked at her curiously. "You may have made some very good assumptions, but you can't _know_, Cate. You can't. Because if Albus ever hears about what is or isn't going on between me and Scorpius Malfoy, you can't know about it." Caitlyn sighed.

"I thought you promised me that if I got together with Albus, he wouldn't come between us."

"And I also promised Albus that _I_ wouldn't come between you. And I won't. So for now, you don't _know_ anything."

"Well do your parents _know_?" Caitlyn asked, digging through her closet once more.

"My Mum does," Rose shrugged. Caitlyn looked at Rose pitifully, but then turned to look at the dozen dresses she had laid out.

"What do you think?"

"I like the silver one," Rose said after taking a minute to examine each of them.

"You don't think it's a bit too revealing?" she asked, holding it up in front of her. Although there was a deep dip in the neckline, the dress came down to at least Caitlyn's knees and Rose had always lived by the philosophy that if God had given you breasts big enough to pull off a dress like that, then you should use them.

"I think Albus will love it," Rose smirked.

"It's Owen's party—I'm pretty sure he has veto power on my choice of clothing. But then again, your Aunt Angelina _is_ stopping by and she's the one who gave me this dress in the first place. Him and Fred can't argue with that!"

"So, is Owen excited?" Rose asked, pushing some of the rejected dresses aside so that she could take a seat on the foot of Caitlyn's bed.

Caitlyn, rather than answering, began to busy herself with placing the dresses one by one neatly back in her closet. "Yeah, he's excited," she finally said.

"And?" Rose asked, trying to catch a glimpse of Caitlyn's face. She refused to make eye contact. "Caitlyn, what is it?"

Caitlyn sighed and looked at Rose. "It's just that he's excited, Rose—_really _exited about going to this dance with you. I know you two always joked about it, but I think he may actually have real feelings for you." Rose's eyes widened. "I made sure he understood that you thought you two were going as friends, so he knows where you stand. He just thinks you might change your mind."

Rose leaned back on the bed and felt like crying. This wasn't happening! Owen Wood was not falling for her—she wouldn't let it happen.

"You know how he is," Caitlyn interrupted her thoughts. "Once he has his heart set on someone, he won't back down. Luckily, he's rather flighty but…Rose, please don't hurt him on his birthday!"

"Owen's one of my best friends!" Rose defended herself. "I'm not going to hurt him ever. I do want to talk to him though. What are the chances he's awake?"

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "Probably not good, but you can check his bedroom. Good luck!"

Dreading what was about to come with every step, Rose paused in front of Owen's door to gather her wits about her. She couldn't lie and say that she had never had feelings for Owen, but now that she was with Scorpius it obviously couldn't happen. She didn't want it anymore and she didn't need Owen in the way making Scorpius jealous. This had to be stopped. Now.

She opened the door without knocking. If Owen was asleep, she didn't want to wake him. The door creaked as she opened it which prompted a groan of annoyance from Owen who was in fact still in bed.

"Leave me alone," he muttered into his pillow.

"Sorry," Rose said hastily. "I'll come back later."

Owen recognized her voice almost immediately and sat up straight in bed, pulling the covers up slightly over his bare chest. "No, Rose, come in. I thought you were Caitlyn. What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to talk to you," she responded, beginning to feel a little awkward. "I guess I should have waited a few hours. If you're anything like Hugo, you could probably sleep well into the afternoon." Owen laughed.

"I'd like to, but chances are my Mum's going to be up here in a few minutes demanding that I help her get everything ready. So, what's up?"

Rose was at a loss as to what to say. If what Caitlyn had said was true, then s Owen knew they were just friends. There was nothing else she could say to make that point any more clear unless she told him that she was dating someone else. As she continued to stand there thinking of nothing to say and Owen continued sitting up in bed awkwardly, Rose lost her nerve. She couldn't say anything to make Owen lose hope today. They'd just have to cross that bridge when they got to it.

"I just wanted to say Happy Birthday," she smiled.

"Well, thank you," Owen said, hopping out of bed and putting a T-shirt on before crossing the room and hugging her.

"Seventeen," Rose mused. "That's hard to believe."

"You're seventeen," he noted. "That's not hard for me to believe."

"No, but you're Caitlyn's little brother."

"Am I just Caitlyn's little brother?" he asked softly. Rose sighed; this wasn't like their usual flirting and she could physically feel the change. When had this happened and why hadn't she noticed it?

"Of course not," she answered. She might not have romantic feelings for him, but he was one of her best friends and that honest truth was that he had never just been Caitlyn's younger brother to her.

"Good," he replied. Rose was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable, not because of anything Owen was doing but because of the situation she felt like she was being placed in. This must be her fault somehow and she had to find a way to make things right with Owen again. It mattered to her a lot.

The day went by much too quickly. Caitlyn's parents and grandparents were running around the house like crazy, trying to get everything set up and get everything situated with the caterers. They enlisted the help of the girls whenever possible, but about two hours before guests were to start arriving, Rose put a stop to the chores and made Caitlyn accompany her upstairs so that they could begin getting ready for the dance.

Rose was rather surprised to find that Caitlyn, who normally didn't bother too much with appearances, was actually quite adept at hair and makeup charms. The girls had fun experimenting with them but finally settled on styles that suited them each. Rose was wearing a knee-length, strapless green dress that she had bought with some money she received for Christmas and Caitlyn was in the silver dress that the girls had picked out earlier.

The girls were giggling and posing for pictures in front of Caitlyn's camera when a knock sounded at the door.

"Come in," Caitlyn said, lowering the camera she had been holding in front of the two girls.

Caitlyn's Mum walked in and smiled once she noticed what the girls were doing. She held her hand out for the camera and Caitlyn handed it to her.

"Me and your father are leaving now," Katie said, trying to figure out which way to hold the contraption. "But you know the rules, Cate. I'm not naïve enough to think Owen hasn't figured out some way to sneak alcohol in—he is seventeen now—but don't go overboard, okay? I work with these kids' parents. And Albus is not to come upstairs, do you understand me?" Rose couldn't help but laugh as Caitlyn blushed.

"Mum!" she cried.

"Smile!" Katie said instead, finally getting the camera in the right position and holding it up. Caitlyn and Rose both smiled just as the flash went off. "Have fun, girls," she said, handing the camera back. "We'll be back sometime tomorrow."

"Bye, Mum," Caitlyn said. Katie walked out of the room, closing the door behind her.

"Does your Mum approve of Albus?" Rose asked pulling a tube of lip gloss out of her purse.

"She does," Caitlyn laughed. "And I think my Dad does too…It's just that your Aunt Angelina is best friends with Mum, you know? And they gossip a lot. She knows Albus had a lot of girlfriends before me and it's not that she doesn't trust him, she just thinks it's going to eventually be about sex."

"So, it's not? About sex?" Rose asked curiously.

Caitlyn shook her head. "He hasn't even mentioned it," she shrugged. "And I know he's not a virgin so it must be coming, right?"

"I don't know," Rose laughed. "Albus might be my best mate, but we don't talk about relationship stuff too much. It makes him uncomfortable. I would ask him, but I don't think he'd be too willing to provide an answer."

"Please don't ask him!" Caitlyn asked. "That's just what I need: him thinking that I'm thinking about sex."

"So, you're not even thinking about it?"

"I'm not ready yet," she said after several seconds of silence. "But what about you? Hypothetically, if you were dating Scorpius Malfoy then I would think that a little something extra would be going on."

"He hasn't mentioned it either," Rose shrugged. "Not in a while. Hypothetically, of course. And also hypothetically, he doesn't want to give Albus another excuse to hate him."

"Probably for the best," Caitlyn smiled. The door to her room suddenly banged open and both girls looked up curiously. "Ever heard of knocking?" she asked Owen. He rolled his eyes.

"People are starting to get here and I need my date. Rose?" Rose smiled and got up from the bed. "Here, I got you a corsage," he said, placing it on her wrist.

"Thank you," Rose said, looking down to admire it. "It's beautiful."

"Ok, if we're going to do this, come on," Caitlyn said as the three friends stepped out of the room. She locked her door behind her with a key and placed it above the door frame. Owen looked at her curiously. "No one is going to be making out on _my _bed," she explained, pushing her way past the couple and down the stairs.

When they arrived on the first floor, Rose was surprised at how many people were already there, entertaining themselves. She spotted Bree, Hugo, James, and Fred Weasley over at the refreshment table and almost started laughing at the sight of Dylan and Parker in dress robes.

"You have quite a collection of people here," Rose noted as they descended the stairs. As far as Rose could tell, all four houses were already represented and many of the teenagers present had graduated already. Owen shrugged.

"I know a lot of people."

Although Rose had entered into this party with trepidations, she soon learned to let her worries dissipate and to just have fun with Owen—one of her best friends. Even if that was all she could offer him, it _was_ his birthday.

It was only when Scorpius and Lily arrived nearly an hour later that her anxiety returned. If Owen noticed the tension, he didn't mention it but to Rose it was palpable.

The couple walked in arm in arm. It was a gesture that was very Lily and Rose doubted that Scorpius had anything to do with it, but it still irked her. For the first time since they had started dating, it truly bothered her that she couldn't simply announce to the room that he was hers.

As Rose continued dancing and conversing with Owen, her mind wasn't completely there. She was continually glancing in Scorpius's direction and generally not giving Owen the attention that he deserved.

Scorpius seemed to be approaching the situation differently. Instead of watching her and Owen closely as she had suspected he would, Scorpius was instead refusing to recognize their presence at all. And although Rose subconsciously realized that this was probably a blessing in disguise, it was getting aggravating. She wanted to talk to him, to hold him, to touch him. And she couldn't. And it sucked.

"Is something wrong?" Owen asked her eventually.

"My stomach's hurting," Rose lied easily, looking into Owen's eyes for the first time in over an hour. She was immediately overwhelmed with guilt.

"Do you want a potion, because—"

"I'll be fine," she replied, shaking her head. She tried to push Scorpius to the back of her mind. Tonight was about Owen. "Good turn out," she noted.

Owen shrugged. "I'm not really worried about them," he said. "I only care about you." They were dancing to a slow song and although Rose got the sudden urge to pull away, she didn't.

"Owen—"

"Rose," he interrupted, "ever since we kissed, I can't stop thinking about you. You know I've always fancied you—at least a little bit—but I can't control it now. We deserve a chance!"

"Owen," she said sadly. "You are one of my best friends…but I don't feel that way right now. I love you, but…not like that."

"What changed?" he asked. He seemed to have suspected that answer—he was prepared for it.

"What?"

"What changed between September and now? At the beginning of the school year, you seemed to really like me."

Rose thought about what to say, but she knew that Owen wouldn't judge her based on the truth. "There's someone else," she shrugged. "Someone I'm not supposed to like."

Owen smirked. "I thought _I_ was someone you weren't supposed to like."

Rose smiled. "You're very safe compared to him."

"And does he return these feelings?"

Rose was about to tell the whole truth, but she decided against it. The last thing she needed was to arouse suspicion right under Albus's nose. "No," she said stiffly.

"Then he's an idiot," Owen said, pulling Rose tighter to him. "You'll get over him and you'll realize that I'm the right man for you." Rose smiled up at him and she supposed that if she really had been turned down by a guy she fancied, that would have made her feel much better.

Suddenly, the music came to a crashing halt and an amplified voice sounded above the crowd. "Who's ready for the birthday boy and his date to have their special dance?"

Rose's eyes widened and Owen's face got red as a spotlight descended on them. Rose felt like she was in some sort of muggle teen movie.

"I had no idea this was going to happen," Owen promised.

"Well, I suppose we had better dance," Rose smiled. Owen sighed in relief that she wasn't mad and placed his arms around her waist as they began swaying to the music. Although Rose wasn't looking for him, from over Owen's shoulder she caught sight of Scorpius and this time, he was looking directly at her and she could tell that he was tensed up. She quickly averted her gaze. She'd deal with him later.

A few more couples joined them on the dance floor until finally Rose didn't feel as painfully exposed. Owen laughed when he felt her body physically relax. "You don't like to be the center of attention," he whispered in her ear.

"Not in particularly," she agreed.

They continued to dance until Rose could feel the song winding down. As soon as the music stopped and another song started playing, the couple pulled apart slightly. Rose was ready for a break. Owen, however, had other ideas. Apparently they had been having a moment that Rose wasn't aware of because all of sudden, Owen was leaning towards her and she suddenly realized that she didn't have the heart to stop him.

His lips met hers in a kiss that she was terrified Scorpius would see, but she couldn't bring herself to push him away so she did the only thing she knew how to do: she kissed him back. Her heart was hammering out of her chest and she was sure if Owen could feel it, he would misinterpret that. She was terrified that she was ruining everything that she had worked so hard to build, just so she could keep a friendship.

The kiss was nice, but it definitely wasn't worth that.

When Owen finally stopped kissing her, he was wearing a smug grin that turned Rose's stomach.

"I have to go to the bathroom," she said hastily and left before she would be forced to hear Owen's bittersweet words. She exited the living room and just kept walking as far away from all of the people as she could get. Her feet took her all the way upstairs without her realizing it and stopped in front of Caitlyn's room. It didn't seem like anyone was around and finally Rose was able to take a deep breath. And another one. She could almost feel herself beginning to hyperventilate, but she leaned against the wall and did everything she could to steady her breathing.

She heard the footsteps not even a minute later. Her breath was still ragged and her head was still clouded as Scorpius walked around the corner, his face unreadable.

"I'm sorry," she said softly after waiting a few seconds for him to start yelling. They seemed to spend a lot of time apologizing to each other.

Scorpius gritted his teeth and shut his eyes tight. Rose braced herself for what was coming. "Why can't you just follow the rules?" he asked helplessly after several tense seconds.

"I couldn't not kiss him," Rose explained desperately. "Not on his birthday!"

Scorpius actually started laughing. "Rosie, you're going to kill me. Do you understand that? I seriously can't feel the tips of my fingers—I'm pretty sure I suffered a very real heart attack back there."

"I'm sorry," she shrugged.

"Do you like him?" Scorpius asked suddenly, looking her directly in the eyes. He had calmed down enough that Rose no longer feared a lash of anger.

"No," she said honestly. "I might have before you, but I don't now. And that's the truth."

Scorpius groaned loudly, but walked forward and hugged Rose tightly. She sighed in relief over his shoulder. "I thought you'd be mad," she whispered.

"Oh, I'm mad as hell," Scorpius said, pulling back, but moving his hands to rest on her waist. She got the distinct feeling that he didn't want to let her go. "Just not at you. I'm mad at all of this. Mainly Owen right now, but it's not really his fault. I'm mad at myself, Rose. We should have never let this happen. We should have told Albus months ago about our feelings for each other instead of running away like cowards. Now, I can't even imagine a happy ending to this."

"I don't need a happy ending," Rose muttered. "I just need you."

Scorpius smirked at her and then pulled her in for a light kiss on the lips. "Do you want to get out of here?" he asked. "I'm sure my Mum would be pleased to see you again."

"I really don't think we should," Rose disagreed, looking over Scorpius's shoulder to see if anyone was coming up the stairs. "Sooner or later, one of our dates is going to wonder where the hell we are."

"I haven't paid any attention to Lily all night, so she's probably thrilled I'm missing," Scorpius said and Rose felt guilty once more.

"Well, I don't think Owen's going to be so understanding," Rose mused.

"You're not going back down there," Scorpius demanded and although he had been putting on a front for Rose's benefit, at the mention of the younger boy's name Rose caught a glimpse of the wrath lingering underneath Scorpius's cool exterior.

"Scorpius, it meant nothing to me," she insisted.

Scorpius rolled his eyes lazily. "I believe you told me several months ago not to use clichés when apologizing, Miss Weasley." Rose couldn't help but smile, but she didn't have any comeback ready. "Let's just get out of here," Scorpius begged.

"If they realize we're missing, Albus is going to _know_," Rose hissed.

"Let him," Scorpius said loudly. Without even checking to see if anyone was watching, he leaned in and kissed Rose deeply. After kissing Owen, it was amazing to feel the effect of Scorpius's kiss on her. It sent her heart flying to the ceiling. He pulled away and stared staright into her eyes. "You are so beautiful."

"Thank you but we still can't leave," Rose sighed. Scorpius rolled his eyes; the boy was having a tough night.

Rose sighed deeply in defeat. Scorpius looked at her eagerly. "We're not leaving," she said, walking a few foot so that she was in front of Caitlyn's locked door. She stood on her tiptoes and grabbed the key off of the doorframe.

"Are you a witch or not?" Scorpius laughed as she fumbled with the small metal object, trying to unlock the door. "Just use your wand."

"Party dresses don't have much room for storage," Rose muttered as the door finally swung open. She looked over at him smugly and he just rolled his eyes and they entered the room. Rose took the key with her in order to stop Caitlyn from entering while they were occupied and set it on her desk. Scorpius closed and locked the door behind them.

Wordlessly, the two came together and began snogging as if they had not seen each other in months. Although they had been together the night before, they had been wary to do much in the Malfoy house and now they were not stopped by their inhibitions. Rose didn't care that every single member of her family was downstairs or that her date was probably looking for her at that very moment. All she cared about was that Scorpius needed to keep kissing her.

They made their way to Caitlyn's bed which was made up nicely and Rose lay down. Scorpius smiled against her lips as his left hand moved to fondle her breasts. She let out an unwilling moan and Scorpius began teasing her even more.

They were so distracted by each other and so happy to finally be alone, that they did not hear the voices talking in the hallway. They did not hear the click of the doorknob as the door unlocked. As Rose turned over and switched positions with Scorpius, both were too oblivious to hear the door open. So when Albus walked in, closely followed by Caitlyn, he got an unobstructed view of the scene in front of him. It took him a few seconds to remember how to form words—and even then he could only think of a few that needed to be vocalized.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Rose jumped off of Scorpius as if she had been burned. Scorpius sat up, his face paling by the second. And then they both just sat there, staring into the face of the one person who could ruin everything.

Their secret was a secret no longer. The walls of the façade Rose had worked so hard to build suddenly came crashing down around her.

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**


	15. Ultimatum

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Ultimatum_

The small group froze, no one daring to move in case it upset the fragile balance of the universe that they had suddenly found themselves a part of. Scorpius was the first one to make any movement. He slowly got off Caitlyn's bed and walked forward until he was standing in front of Albus, looking like a man being led to the slaughter. Rose, who had suddenly gone numb and couldn't feel her feet well enough to move them, stayed sitting on the bed.

Albus and Scorpius stood there for several seconds, looking hard into each other's eyes. The room was as silent as a tomb, no one wanting to say the first word and no one knowing who had the right to. Once it became clear that no one was about to answer Albus's question about "what the fuck was going on", he locked eyes with each person in the room individually. Rose returned his judgemental gaze sadly and knew that she had to say something.

"Albus," she whispered softly, still not bothering to stand. There was no doubt in her mind that she wouldn't have the strength to support herself. Scorpius moved out of the way so that Albus and Rose could see each other clearly. As he moved, Rose was able to see his face for the first time and she realized that he had no better idea than her as to how to handle this situation. That, more than anything, terrified her. But the one thing that she knew for certain was that she was through with lying. One way or another, this was going to be sorted out today. "I know you must be jumping to conclusions, but you have to believe me when I say that this isn't what it looks like."

Albus rolled his eyes. "'This isn't what it looks like'? Rose, is that seriously the best excuse you can come up with. I told you no. And I definitely told _you_ no," he cried, turning sharply to face Scorpius. "I can't believe this! Here you are, fucking around on _my_ girlfriend's bed. This is so typical, Scorpius!"

Scorpius didn't argue that point, but just lowered his gaze to stare at his shoes. He was going to get the brunt of Albus's anger even though Rose knew he didn't deserve it. "This isn't Scorpius's fault!" she insisted. Albus turned his attention back to her, but it was obvious that he didn't want to deal with his delinquent cousin right now. He was angrier than Rose had ever seen him and he needed to take it out on someone who wasn't related to him.

"This isn't Scorpius's fault?" Albus laughed derisively. "Not Scorpius's fault! Forgive me when I say that you obviously don't know what the fuck you're talking about right now. I thought you were smarter than this; how much firewhiskey did you have? After all the years you've gone on about how Scorpius Malfoy treats women like property and now you're shagging him? Do you realize what a hypocrite you are?"

Scorpius looked mildly amused at the fact that Rose had once thought him a cretin, but his grin quickly faded when he remembered their current situation. "Albus," he said, trying to turn the attention back to him and away from Rose.

Albus jerked his head in Scorpius's direction and snapped, "Don't talk to me." He turned as if he were going to address Rose once more, but thought better of it and turned full-force back to his best mate. "I trusted you! You are—were—my best mate and I trusted you. I know you have this psychological condition where you have to sleep with everything that has breasts, but why Rose? You could have any girl at Hogwarts and you choose the one girl I specifically told you to stay away from? What the hell is wrong with you? I hope this little affair was worth our friendship."

Scorpius sighed deeply, lines of pain etched onto his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again, just thinking. "I don't know what's wrong with me," he shrugged finally. "But when I asked you for permission to date Rose, it was already too late. We've been together for…a while. You didn't just walk in on a one-night stand."

The room fell into silence once more. Albus's mouth was opening and closing like a fish out of water, but he didn't seem to be able to align his thoughts. The only person Rose felt comfortable looking at was Caitlyn who looked very much as if she wanted to sidle out of the room before anyone remembered she was there.

"How long?" Albus asked through gritted teeth, his anger flaring up to an unprecedented level.

Scorpius looked hesitantly over at Rose—how much were they supposed to tell him? They'd only been dating for a little while, but this ordeal had been going on much longer than that.

"Since the concert," Rose finally choked out. Albus turned his attention back to her only long enough to comprehend her words. He was now physically shaking with anger, tears of rage threatening to fall from his eyes as he turned back to Scorpius. Rose knew that Scorpius had told him the story about the concert, sans a name, months ago. Albus knew all of the little details that Scorpius would have never told him otherwise. Albus closed his eyes and shook his head back and forth.

"I know this looks bad," Scorpius said hastily, fearing that Albus's tolerance was about to reach its end. "But I really like Rose, Albus. I would never do anything to hurt to her—to hurt you. I respect you too much for that. I've wanted to tell you, but I've been terrified of what you would say. This isn't just a fling for me!"

"I don't want to hear what you have to say!" Albus barked. "I don't care. This thing—this relationship, whatever you're calling it—won't last and I'm going to be the one that has to pick up the pieces."

"Albus," Caitlyn said softly from the door, reaching out gently to touch his arm. Her face was bright red and Rose could tell that she was speaking even against her better judgment. "Maybe they do deserve a chance. I mean, we kept our relationship a secret at first too. And Rose had as much right as you to tell us that we couldn't date, but she didn't."

"This is completely different," Albus snapped at her. His face suddenly morphed into a look of understanding and his anger was now not only directed at Rose and Scorpius, but at Caitlyn too. "Did you know about them?"

"No!" she cried hastily. Albus looked as if he severely doubted that.

"She really didn't!" Rose insisted. "I told you I would never put the two of you in a position where you had to choose between me and each other and I haven't!"

Albus's face suddenly relaxed as an idea occurred to him. "Choose," he said harshly to Scorpius. Scorpius looked at him in surprise and confusion. "Choose!" Albus insisted once more, this time more loudly. "Me or her."

"Al!" Scorpius cried in shock.

"Choose!" he repeated.

"Have you completely lost your mind? I am your best mate and you're treating me like shit! You know me, Albus. And you know I wouldn't be putting up with your shit if I wasn't being completely honest. I've never felt the way I feel about Rose for any other girl. I'm sorry that she's your cousin, but I just can't help the way I feel."

Albus rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I've heard all of that before. You tell it to every single girl you shag. But _I'm_ not in love with you and _I'm_ not going to believe your lies."

"You're asking me to choose between the best thing that's ever happened to me and you!"

"Well when you put it that way—choose!" Albus instructed once more. Scorpius shoulders deflated and he turned to look at Rose. He looked more pained than Rose had ever seen another person look. It was like he was doing battle with himself.

Without taking his eyes off of Rose's, he said quietly, "I choose Rose." Rose's heart did a flip, but it wasn't quite a happy moment. Scorpius looked satisfied with his decision; a small grin covered his face and his body language completely changed as if a heavy burden had been removed from his shoulder.

Albus couldn't even speak he was so shocked, but he wasn't ready to give up. He turned back to Rose and the look he gave her was not one of anger, but of hurt. It broke her heart to see him looking at her with so much pain in his eyes and knowing that she was the one who caused it. "I've changed my mind," he said quietly. "I don't care about Malfoy's opinion." Rose saw Scorpius wince over the use of his surname. "I want yours. I want you to choose right now, Rose: me or him."

Rose's stomach plummeted. Surely she hadn't heard him right. "What?"

"Me or him," Albus asked once more.

Scorpius looked at his friend as if he had never seen him before. "You can't ask her that, Albus."

"I just did," he responded fiercely.

"You're mad, you're hurting," Scorpius continued. "We lied to you, we betrayed you. We get it. But if you make her answer that question, you're going to regret it."

"So you're that confident that she would choose you over me?" Albus snapped.

"No," Scorpius corrected, raising his voice for the first time. He was now yelling. "I know she won't choose me. Not when it's a choice between me and you. How could she? But do you really want to be the person who made her make that decision?"

"Yes," he answered, turning back to Rose. "Me or him."

Tears were flowing freely down Rose's face and she refused to meet anyone's eyes. What Scorpius had said was true: there was no way she could choose Scorpius over her family. She just couldn't do it. She didn't know how binding what she was about to say would be, but she knew that it was going to tear her apart.

"I choose you," she told Albus, her voice a monotone. Albus sighed deeply upon hearing her words.

"And you'll stop seeing him?" he asked kindly, taking a seat next to Rose on the bed. She was angrier at Albus than she had ever been at another person and she had to stand up because she couldn't bear to be next to him. She knew that she would not be able to answer his question—she didn't want to.

"We'll stop seeing each other," Scorpius said for her. Rose looked over at him sadly. Even though she didn't see another option, his words cut through her like a knife. It was obvious that it killed Scorpius to say them, but they both knew Albus wasn't messing around any more.

"Come on, Rose," Albus said, standing up. "Why don't we go home?"

"No!" Rose cried viciously, her emotions suddenly breaking. Albus turned to her in surprise. "I'm not going anywhere with you. I'm going to say goodbye to Scorpius and you're going to let me."

Albus's anger was rising once more, but he accepted his defeat and stormed out of the room without even glancing at Caitlyn.

"I'll try to talk to him," Caitlyn said before she left the room also.

As soon as the door shut, Rose ran to Scorpius and collapsed into his arms. He held on to her tightly, her tears staining his shirt.

"He'll get over it eventually," Scorpius said to her, his own voice steady. "I know Albus. He'll regret this and he'll see that I'm not the person I used to be. But for now we don't have a choice. If this is ever going to work, Albus has to be on our side."

"I know," Rose choked.

"No more secrets," Scorpius said, kissing her forehead. "No more lies. We don't have to pretend anymore. We just have to show him that we want this."

"So we're breaking up?" she asked.

"Your cousin's breaking us up," Scorpius corrected. "But I can wait. I can wait forever. And I'm not going to stop fighting for you."

"Scorpius, I don't want to break up," Rose said, pulling away from him and looking him fiercely in the eyes. "He knows now. Why can't we just keep dating? You said that he'll get over it eventually—isn't the best way to show him that we're being sincere to keep dating?"

"No, Rose," Scorpius said sadly. "The best way to earn Albus's favor is to do what he wants. I chose you, Rose, and I would choose you again. But if I can manage it, I want Albus back too."

"But I don't!" Rose cried. "I never want to see him again!"

Scorpius sighed. "You will someday." At that point, Rose completely lost it. Scorpius enveloped her in a hug once more, but soon he was pushing her away. He leaned in and gave her a brief kiss on the lips before pushing her towards the door and she suddenly realized that it was taking everything he had to let her go.

Scorpius was trying to stay calm for her, but she saw in his eyes something that she had missed before. Scorpius was livid. Far angrier than Albus had been only a few minutes earlier. He looked murderous and as Rose left the room, leaving him alone, she couldn't help but wonder just where exactly he was planning on channeling that anger.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

Rose left the party without even saying goodbye to Owen. She knew that she would feel bad about that later, but at that particular moment she had no room left for excess emotions. The Weasley house was empty when she arrived home and it took her a few minutes of thinking to remember that her parents were out with the Potters and probably wouldn't be back until late.

Without even bothering to turn a light on, Rose crept up to her bedroom and collapsed on her bed still fully clothed. The house was dark and silent and it was exactly what she needed. Her tears had dried and had been replaced with nothing but anger. If Albus even popped into her head, she would start shaking with pent up rage. For the first time in her life, she understood how someone could bring themselves to use an Unforgivable Curse on another human being. That thought made her feel guilty, however, because as much as she tried to deny it there alone in her bedroom, Albus was the best friend she had ever had and she loved him more than she had ever loved anyone. She loved him more than she loved her relationship with Scorpius and that was why she was sitting alone in her dark room instead of enjoying Owen's coming-of-age party. And she absolutely hated that she loved him because at this moment, it wasn't fair.

It wasn't fair that Albus had asked her to rip her heart from her chest and to live without it. It wasn't fair that she had agreed.

Rose pulled her pillow over her face to try and still her thoughts, but it didn't work. What had she done to deserve this?

She drifted in and out of sleep over the next few hours, never letting herself fall asleep completely in fear of what her dreams had in store for her. It was past midnight when she heard movement downstairs. She groaned in disappointment that she was no longer alone in the house and hastily shoved herself under her comforter so that when her Mum came to check on her, she could pretend to be asleep.

As the footsteps made it up the stairway, however, they were not her mother's footsteps. That distinct thudding could only belong to Hugo. Rose closed her eyes still tighter and prayed that he would not open her door. Maybe he hadn't heard anything about what had gone on at the party and would just assume that she was still having fun with Owen. In her heart, however, Rose knew that this could not be true. It was way too early for Hugo to be home without a reason. And judging by the fact that Rose only heard one set of footsteps, he had left Bree at the party.

He knocked gently on her door but Rose didn't respond. He knocked once more, but didn't even wait for a response before pushing the door open.

"Rose?" he whispered. Rose just lay there with her back to him, pretending to be asleep. Hugo seemed torn as to what he should do. He didn't leave her room, but he wasn't making any move to enter it either. "Rose?" he repeated. "If you're awake, can you please say something?"

He sounded such like a little kid that Rose couldn't pretend anymore. Rather than say anything, she just turned around under the covers so that she was facing him. He sighed upon seeing that she was awake and sat down on the foot of her bed.

"Can I turn a light on?" he asked. Rose nodded although she really wasn't in the mood for light right now—light represented happiness and she definitely wasn't happy. Hugo pulled his wand out of his dress robes and lit up the room.

"You're only fifteen. You're not supposed to do magic outside of school," Rose admonished. Hugo just shrugged and looked down at his sister worriedly. "Have you been talking to Albus?"

"A little, yeah," Hugo said. "He's really, really mad. I've never seen him like this before."

"Who's he mad at?" Hugo shrugged. The thing Rose loved about Hugo was that he was blunt and got straight to the point. He wasn't going to waste time trying to decipher what people's actions meant. He was just going to report them. "Are _you_ mad at me?" she asked worriedly. Throughout her whole relationship with Scorpius, she had never given her brother's feelings much thought. Adding this guilt to the events of the night, she was feeling like a thoroughly despicable person.

"Am I mad at you for dating Scorpius?" he asked. "Not really. Am I mad at you for not telling me about it? A little. But I'll get over it."

"I'm sorry," Rose groaned. "I just didn't want Albus to find out."

"I know," Hugo said. "That was really dumb of you, by the way. You should have just _told_ him instead of going behind his back."

"You think that would have made this better?" she asked doubtfully.

"I think it would have made Albus feel a little less betrayed," Hugo shrugged. "I think he's feeling hurt more than anger right now."

"Do you think he'll ever get over it?"

"Sure," Hugo shrugged indifferently. "But I'm not sure he'll ever admit he's over it. And just so you know, I talked to Scorpius tonight too."

"You did what?" Rose asked, sitting up in bed.

"Calm down," Hugo said, rolling his eyes. "He came to me, not the other way around. He wanted me to hear his side of the story before I decided to hate him. He really likes you, Rose."

"It doesn't matter now," she mused. "Albus forced us to break up."

"Scorpius was super pissed at Albus when I was talking to him," Hugo agreed.

"They're best mates!" Rose cried. "I don't see what the big problem is! I know I should have told Albus what was going on, but that still doesn't give him an excuse to ruin my life! If I wanted to date one of your friends, would you stop me?"

Hugo thought about that for a second. "No. I don't think I'd care honestly as long as they leave me out of it. I like my friends—they're decent blokes."

"Right," Rose agreed. "And I don't think Albus would ever be friends with someone he didn't think was decent, as you put it—hell, him and Scorpius are like brothers! If _he's_ allowed to like Scorpius, then why aren't I?"

"Albus knows that Scorpius is a decent bloke, Rose. But he's blinded by his past. Judging by the way Scorpius was talking about you, I'd say he's changed. At least for now and that's all you can ask. Wait until Albus calms down and maybe he'll see that too."

Rose sighed deeply, but she felt a lot better after talking to her brother. She reached forward and hugged him tightly. Slightly taken aback, he patted her back gently until she let him go. "Thank you," she said. "I feel better now."

Hugo sighed and looked at her sadly. "There's something else you should probably be aware of," he winced.

"What?" Rose asked warily.

Hugo looked up to the ceiling, fishing around for the right words. "Albus and Scorpius kind of…well, they started yelling at each other after you left and it just kind of blew up. Me and Owen got them outside before they started throwing punches, but—"

"Punches?" Rose cried, leaping out of bed. Hugo pulled her back down by her wrist.

"They're both fine," Hugo said patronizingly as if Rose didn't know the first thing about fights. "They just needed to get their anger out and they did. The downside of that is obviously the fact that now half the school knows your personal business."

"Muggle dueling?" Rose asked in disbelief. "Are they completely daft? The last thing I need is for them to be mortal enemies. If Albus isn't going to let us date, then they could at least be civil to each other!"

"That's the thing, Rosie," Hugo explained with a slight laugh. "They were sitting in Owen's kitchen together afterwards, nursing their wounds and just talking. Not about you. Not about anything. Just talking. They're both fine and they stopped yelling, so I'd say throwing punches has its benefits."

Although Rose didn't see it that way, she could hardly argue. "Did you see Caitlyn?" she asked.

Hugo shook his head. "Owen said she'd barricaded herself in his room and refused to come out. Al and Scorpius were talking about it. I think she's pretty mad at our dear ole cousin."

"After tonight, Albus really isn't short on enemies," Rose agreed bitterly.

"So," Hugo said after a few moments of silence. "I know that you and Albus are close—closer than me and you have ever been—but I just want you to know that if you need to talk to someone, I'm here. I'm on your side, Rose."

"I love you, Hugo," she said, reaching forward to hug her brother once more.

"I love you too," he said and then excused himself. As soon as he was gone, Rose blew out the candle he had lit and plunged herself into darkness once more. She might feel better, but she still wasn't in the mood to be happy.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

As Rose prepared to take the Hogwarts Express back to school a few days later, she was just as nervous to see Scorpius Malfoy as she had been on her first day of school months before; this time, however, it was for a very different reason. How was she supposed to look him in the eye and just forget about what had happened between them? How was she supposed to pretend like she was over him when she wasn't? What were they now: exes, friends? Her feelings for him were just as strong as ever, but she no longer knew what to do with them. It wasn't something that she wanted to put on hold.

As soon as Rose arrived on the platform, she left Hugo and her parents and settled herself into an empty train compartment. If she were lucky, maybe Albus wouldn't try to find her. Her hopes weren't high.

Caitlyn was the first one to arrive, for which Rose was thankful. The two girls didn't have to say anything; they just sat in silence until they were ready to talk.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into the middle of this," Rose said after a while.

"You didn't drag me into anything," Caitlyn argued. "Albus was out of line—I'm not so blinded by love that I can't see that."

"Have you two talked since—"

"No," Caitlyn interrupted stiffly. "I haven't returned his owls. I don't want to talk to him."

Rose nodded her understanding. Her goal wasn't to pit Albus and Caitlyn against each other, but if her best friend was on her side, it definitely made her life a hell of a lot more bearable.

The next time the compartment door opened, it was Albus on the other side. Paying no attention to the fact that he was entering into a room with two people who very much did not want to speak with him, he took a seat. It was only after he'd sat down that Rose felt she was brave enough to look at him and give him a nice, long glare. Her glare dissipated immediately once she noticed that his face was covered with bruises. Hugo had told her than him and Scorpius had gone at it, but she didn't realize there would be physical evidence present for the rest of the school to speculate about.

What would people say when they found out Albus and Scorpius were fighting over Rose? That sure would turn a few heads.

"Back to Hogwarts," Albus grinned, breaking the silence after several tense seconds. Rose wanted to slap him for being so nonchalant.

"What are you doing in here?" Caitlyn asked, still looking shocked that he would choose to join them.

"What do you mean?" he asked. "We always ride the Hogwarts Express together." Rose and Caitlyn exchanged shocked looks. Was Albus seriously going to act like nothing had happened? Caitlyn shook her head in disbelief.

"I can't believe you," she muttered, but left it at that. Albus tensed up for several seconds, but then relaxed once more. He must have realized that he was in a bad spot with Caitlyn, but he was obviously unwilling to try and sort things out with Rose in the room. That might actually involve talking about Scorpius, which Rose was sure he didn't want to do.

Rose, for her part, wasn't planning on saying a thing because if she opened her mouth, she had a feeling she was going to regret what came out of it. She hadn't slept well the past few nights and her patience was at a breaking point. She wanted more than anything to leave the compartment, but she knew that Caitlyn would kill her if Rose left her alone with Albus right now. They were both mad, but they both couldn't walk away because there was still that small part of them that loved the naïve, ignorant boy sitting in front of them.

The compartment door opened once more and Rose looked up hopefully, praying for a savior. Instead of a savior, there stood Scorpius. Rose rolled her eyes wondering if things could possibly get any worse. Scorpius's face was just as badly bruised as Albus's. Once he caught sight of his best friend, he paused half way into the compartment. Everyone was silent.

"Um…sorry," Scorpius finally said, backing out once more. "I just came to see Rose. I didn't know you were here."

"It's fine," Albus said, a little bit stiffly. Scorpius was almost out of the compartment when Albus spoke again. "Did you see that article in the _Prophet _this morning about the Tutshill Tornados?"

Scorpius paused and looked at Rose questioningly. "He's pretending like everything's fine," she explained, not even bothering to keep her voice down." Scorpius gave her a pointed look that told her very clearly to not complain. If Albus was being bearable, he wanted to keep it that way.

"It's bloody unbelievable," Scorpius said to Albus after a few seconds. "The Chudley Canons beat them! Their season can't get much worse after that, can it?"

"No, it bloody well can not," Albus smiled. The girls exchanged stunned looks as Scorpius took a seat and him and Albus began a conversation as if they hadn't beaten each other up in Caitlyn's back yard just a few nights before.

After sitting in a dazed silence for several minutes, Rose finally couldn't take it anymore. "I'm getting out of here," she muttered, standing up and grabbing her bag. "This is completely daft. Cate, you want to come with me? I need to find your brother."

Caitlyn looked around the room warily, but shook her head. Rose nodded and turned towards the door. She realized as soon as she saw Scorpius's face that he wasn't happy and it took her a second to think of why—she had said she was going to see Owen. Of course he wouldn't be happy about that.

"I've got to talk to him," she turned around to explain to Scorpius sadly. Scorpius looked very much like he didn't want to be having this conversation in front of Albus, but Rose couldn't care less what her cousin heard at this point. "I just left last night without telling him anything. I owe him an explanation."

"I know," Scorpius muttered stiffly.

"I think he put the story together for himself, actually," Caitlyn said and Rose was relieved to find that she was supporting Rose's tactic to approaching this situation—she wasn't about to dance over it as if it had never happened. "I mean, those two were fighting on our front lawn and they weren't exactly being quiet about it." Albus and Scorpius both glowed red at her statement, but neither acknowledged her words. By this point, Rose's temper was flaring up at Scorpius too. Was he seriously going to go along with Albus's philosophy of forgetting anything had ever happened just so he could have his friend back?

Rose rolled her eyes and was almost out of the door when Albus stopped her. "You have patrol tonight," he said. "Just in case Madeline doesn't find you before then."

Although Rose had some questions about patrols, she still didn't want to talk to Albus. Scorpius, however, seemed to be reading her mind.

"Who's she patrolling with now?" he asked warily.

"You," Albus said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Unless there's some problem I'm not aware of, you seemed to be doing fine as partners. Do you want to swap partners?"

Rose's jaw literally dropped open. "Albus!" she yelled. "I've heard of forgive and forget, but you're taking this a little too far!" Albus just looked at her curiously. Rose let out a strangled yell and stormed out of the compartment. It was official: Albus had completely lost his mind. She had never seen another human being go to such lengths to restore normalcy. They had reached the point where this was getting a bit ridiculous.

People threw sidelong glances at Rose as she walked from carriage to carriage, peeking into compartments in order to find Owen. She knew that word of Albus and Scorpius's fight from the night before must have traveled by now, but she was far from caring. She knew she'd get hell from most of the girls for being interested in Scorpius after all the girls he'd been withre, but this wasn't her fight. Rather than talking about her, people would probably be focusing more on the Albus/Scorpius dynamic, which Rose didn't mind at all. If they were going to be idiots, then they deserved to be talked about.

Rose finally found Owen in a carriage full of Quidditch players. Hugo was also present and smirked at her as she opened the door.

She felt more than a bit awkward standing there with about eight sets of eyes on her, but she felt even more awkward when some of them started chuckling under their breath. It didn't take a genius to figure out they had heard the story about what had happened at Owen's party.

"Do you want to talk to me?" Owen asked with a smile.

"Yeah," Rose agreed hastily. He nodded and excused himself. The guys were still laughing when he shut the carriage behind him and closed the shutter over the window. Rose could hear them groan.

"I'm sorry," she said immediately. Owen smiled at her.

"I'm not mad, Rose," he said. "Why would I be? And I got to kiss you, so I'm perfectly happy." Rose smirked. "Malfoy didn't give you hell for that, did he? I swear I wouldn't have done that if I'd known you were dating someone."

"He was jealous," Rose laughed. "But no, it didn't cause any problems. Turns out we don't need you to screw up our relationship."

Owen's smile disappeared. "Caitlyn explained a lot of what was going on to me. If it makes you feel any better, I think Albus is way out of line."

"You're only saying that because your sister's pissed off at him. You don't like Scorpius."

Owen smirked. "You're probably right. But listen, tell Albus I'm sorry for kissing you because I don't want him coming after me next," he joked.

"I don't think that's going to be a problem," Rose replied sardonically. "He refuses to mention anything that happened that night."

"Excuse me?" Owen laughed.

"I'm not joking!" Rose insisted. "You would never know that anything had happened between me and Scorpius by talking to Albus. It's giving me a headache!"

Owen laughed lightly and hugged her. "I wish I could help you, Rosie." They went their separate ways a few minutes later and it wasn't much longer until the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station. Wondering what in the hell the next term was going to have in store for her, Rose set out on the journey alone and in the dark. She still wasn't in the mood to be happy.

**.*.**

**A/N: Sorry for the wait. Review, please :)**


	16. Aftermath

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Aftermath_

Rose quickly realized after stepping off of the Hogwarts Express that breaking up with Scorpius and fighting with Albus left her very few options on who to spend her time with. That's how she found herself sitting distractedly in the Common Room with Hugo, Parker, and Dylan, listening as she heard her name whispered in conversations all around the room.

It wouldn't be so bad if Caitlyn were with her but she was missing too. This was probably due to the fact that Albus had been sitting in a chair adjacent to the steps leading to the girls' dormitories for over an hour. Rose threw glances his way every so often, entertaining herself by thinking of all of the names and insults she would like to throw at him.

"You two are going to have to speak eventually," Hugo muttered, nudging Rose in the shoulder.

"I can't think of any possible circumstance where I would have to speak to him ever again," Rose scoffed.

"Well," Parker interrupted. "All I know is that in one night you, Albus, and Caitlyn managed to completely throw away any chance Gryffindor had at the Quidditch cup."

"That's not true!" Rose said, rolling her eyes.

"Considering the fact that you and Caitlyn both aren't speaking to Albus," Dylan interjected, "I'm thinking it's kind of true."

"No, it's not," Rose said, thinking logically. "I'm a Chaser, Caitlyn's Keeper, and Albus is Seeker. In what universe will we ever have to actually work together?"

Dylan and Parker exchanged wary glances. "That's a great philosophy right there," Hugo muttered.

"Maybe we'll at least have fewer practices now," Parker shrugged.

Dylan started laughing as an idea occurred to him. "Maybe you might actually have a chance with Caitlyn now!" he guffawed.

"No, thank you," Parker replied, glancing over at Albus. "I'm not suicidal."

The conversation from there segued into Hugo's blossoming relationship with Bree and was fast approaching territory that Rose was sure she didn't want to hear. Rather than ask them to change the subject for her benefit, she figured she might as well go check on Caitlyn. After all, it was her fault that Caitlyn was fighting with Albus in the first place.

The only problem was that she couldn't get up the stairs without Albus seeing her. She decided to chance it anyway, hoping desperately that he wouldn't stop her. She had no such luck.

"Rose!" he cried, hopping up from his seat. She didn't even turn to look at him, but kept on walking. "Rose!" he yelled again, this time growing angry. She stopped only because she knew it would be hell if she didn't, but she didn't bother to turn around. He circled her so that he could look her in the eyes. "Can you please tell Caitlyn to come down here and talk to me?"

Rose debated whether to answer him, but decided instead to vent a bit of her anger. "No, I can't," she answered calmly. Albus's face told her everything she needed to know in that instant. Even though he was trying his hardest to hide his true feelings, he was mad at Rose—probably madder than he had ever been—but for the sake of their relationship, he was keeping his mouth shut.

"I need to talk to her," he hissed.

Even though Rose's frustration had evaporated slightly, she still couldn't refrain from rolling her eyes. "I'll tell her you're down here," she shrugged. "But I can't tell her what to do. She's obviously pissed at you, and I doubt anything I say will change that."

"Just tell her I'm down here," Albus insisted and Rose took that as permission to leave. Her dormitory was empty except for Caitlyn, who was lying on her bed in the dark doing absolutely nothing.

"Having fun?" Rose asked, shutting the door behind her.

"Loads of fun," Caitlyn answered.

"Albus is camped out in the Common Room," Rose said, taking a seat on the foot of her friend's bed. "He told me to tell you to come talk to him."

"Well then go tell him I'm not talking to him," Caitlyn insisted.

"I can't do that," Rose groaned.

"Why the bloody hell not?" Caitlyn asked.

"Because I'm not talking to him either!" Rose insisted.

"He's just out of luck then," Caitlyn grinned.

"Why are _you_ mad at him anyway? Because he accused you of knowing about me and Scorpius?"

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "I could care less about that—that is relatively excusable compared to how he's treating you. If you were nice enough to let me and him date, then he has no excuse for not letting you date Scorpius."

Rose groaned and lay back on her bed. "Way to drag me into this, Cate!"

"I'm not dragging you into anything," she argued. "But I _am_ entitled to my own opinion and quite frankly, I'm pissed off at him right now. I need a few days to calm down and he's going to give me that whether he wants to or not."

"So you don't think I'm blowing this a bit out of proportion?" Rose sighed.

"I think Albus is blowing this out of proportion," she corrected. "And he's just making it worse by not talking about it. What does Scorpius think?"

"I haven't really talked to him yet," Rose admitted. "But we'll be patrolling together tonight."

"You should start dating again," Caitlyn shrugged. "Scorpius doesn't seem like the type to take orders from anyone—I bet he'd be willing to defy my idiot boyfriend."

Rose chuckled lightly. "I have a feeling Albus is going to be watching us pretty closely."

"Well, if you go back down to the Common Room tell him I said to fuck off. I'm not in the mood today."

"Yeah, I guess I will—I've got to go to patrols." As Rose made her way back down to the Common Room, she couldn't help but feel a little bit depressed. She was currently in a situation where all of her best friends were mad at each other. It wasn't a good feeling.

As soon as she descended the stairs, Albus was upon her. After seeing the eager look on his face, Rose honestly wished she could bring him better news.

"She doesn't want to talk to you," Rose said as gently as she could muster. Albus gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, trying to regain control of his emotions. He must have failed because several seconds later, he punched the wall next to him hard, causing Rose to jump.

"Albus!" she warned. "Don't hurt yourself!"

"This is your fault!" he cried.

Rose was thoroughly taken aback. "What?"

"This is all your fault!" he repeated. "It's not enough for you to ruin my relationship with Scorpius—now you have to ruin my relationship with Caitlyn too!"

"Excuse me, but I'm not the one ruining anything!" she yelled. The Common Room was starting to watch them with interest, but Rose didn't care. Albus, however, was more self-conscious.

"Come with me," he hissed and walked towards the portrait hole. Unwillingly, Rose followed. Hugo threw her one warning glance before the door shut behind her. Albus didn't waste any time trying to find an empty classroom but simply turned on her right there in the middle of the corridor.

"I am not just going to sit back and let you send my life crashing into ruins. I am doing everything I possibly can to restore some normalcy to our lives, but you refuse to let me forget what I walked in on. I will not support a relationship between you and Scorpius—end of story. In fact," he laughed derisively, "I bet he's secretly thrilled I forced you to break up. His fun is over, Rose—I found out about the two of you and now the relationship isn't exciting anymore. I gave him an easy out and he should be thanking me for it."

"So, it's impossible to even fathom the thought that Scorpius might have true feelings for me?" Rose asked, tears of anger welling up in her eyes at the utter hatred in Albus's voice.

Albus sighed deeply. "It's impossible for Scorpius Malfoy to have true feelings for anybody."

"If you believe that," Rose hissed, "And I mean truly believe that, then how the hell can you be friends with a person like that?" Albus didn't answer. "Are you even mad at him?"

"I want to kill him," Albus choked out, his voice laced with raw emotion. "I want to kill him for using you, Rose. And I know you hate me right now, but you have to believe that you're going to thank me for this someday. And it may be sooner than you think—Scorpius moves on fast."

Rose rolled her eyes to try and hide just how much his last statement bothered her. She hadn't even given any thought to the fact that since her and Scorpius were technically broken up, they were free to date other people. Surely he wouldn't, right? They were just on a sabbatical until Albus calmed down a bit.

"I know this doesn't make much sense to you," Albus said softly. "And I'm not going to stop you from talking to him or being friends with him. He needs a friend like you. But you and him in a relationship?—it's a mistake, Rose."

"Isn't it my mistake to make?" she sighed.

"It is," Albus agreed. "But am I just supposed to stand back and watch you walk off a cliff? I'm sorry. For whatever you're mad at, I'm sorry. But I just can't do it."

"You probably won't believe me when I say this," Rose said a few seconds later, "But I really don't have anything to do with the fact that Caitlyn won't talk to you. If it helps, she said she's pissed because I gave my permission for you two to date, but you didn't do the same for me." Albus looked as if he didn't, in fact, believe this. "I've got to go," she finally said and made her way towards the Entrance Hall for her patrols.

Once she arrived, she took a seat on the floor to wait for Scorpius. She had grown used to waiting for him. He was never exactly late, but he was never as early as Rose either.

As she sat there on the floor, her heart and her mind both began to race. This would be the first time that she was alone with Scorpius since that night at Owen's and she had absolutely no clue what to expect. She was nervous about seeing him and she cursed Albus for making her feel anxious about seeing the one person she had learned to be herself around.

As the time until their patrols began ticking down, it was like the room was slowly shrinking, encasing Rose in an overt sense of claustrophobia. Her ears were ringing as the clock settled onto the top of the hour and just like clockwork, Scorpius rounded the corner. Rose jumped slightly upon seeing him, not expecting his arrival to be so abrupt.

"Hi," he smiled once he noticed her sitting there. Rose was relieved to find that his smile was still exactly the same.

"Hi," she responded, not bothering to pick herself up off the floor.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he got closer to her, holding out his hand to help her off the ground.

"I'm fine—why?" she asked, her voice an octave higher than usual as he helped her up.

"Your face is really red," he smirked. "And it's getting redder."

Rose groaned and tried to cover her face with her hands, although she knew it was pointless. She had inherited the same pale skin as her father and any situation that made her feel even slightly awkward or uncomfortable resulted in a bright red face (and ears, but those she could cover with her hair). "I'm fine," she repeated through her fingers.

"Then why are you blushing?" Scorpius laughed as he reached up and tried to pull Rose's hands away from her face. She reluctantly let him and just stood there staring into his eyes, feeling more vulnerable that she had ever felt. "I've given you cause to blush before and I get no reaction, but now all I have to do is walk into a room!"

Rose sighed. "This is awkward for me," she admitted. "We've gone from being casual acquaintances, to being snog buddies, to being boyfriend and girlfriend and now we're none of those. I don't know what we are anymore!"

"You're more confused now than when I was snogging you and dating Madeline?" Scorpius clarified with a chuckle. "You're one of a kind, Rose Weasley."

She couldn't help but smile. "So, are we patrolling tonight or do you just want to go somewhere and talk."

Scorpius shifted on his feet uncomfortably for a second before responding. "Let's talk while we patrol. Your cousin's mad enough at me as it is—I don't need him on my back for missing patrols too."

Rose nodded her understanding and they began walking down the corridor, neither one of them paying much attention to their surroundings. Sure they were walking their rounds, but they weren't doing much patrolling.

"We're friends, by the way," he said suddenly. Rose looked up at him curiously. "You've been my acquaintance, my snog buddy, my girlfriend, and now you're my friend. It doesn't have to be confusing."

Rose rolled her eyes. "Being your friends doesn't sound nearly as interesting as being your girlfriend."

Scorpius smirked. "You think it's going to be that hard to keep from snogging me, do you?"

"If I know one thing about you Scorpius Malfoy, it's that you often blur the line between friend and girlfriend. You'll come crawling back to me before I come crawling back to you."

He smiled at her widely, but his smile soon disappeared. "I have no doubt that you're right about that."

"Then why can't we just be together?" Rose sighed. "You picked me and I don't care about Albus's opinion anymore!"

Scorpius looked at her shiftily as they kept walking, but it took him a while to respond. "I picked you Rose and if that had been that, then I wouldn't regret it. But that isn't that and now I'm stuck."

"What do you mean?" she asked warily.

"I mean—and don't take this the wrong way, okay—but when it comes down to it, you can never pick me over him. And I'm not saying it's a bad thing!" he sighed as she opened her mouth to retort. "But it's the truth."

"No, it's not!" she said adamantly. "I pick you! You, Scorpius!"

"Okay," he said patronizingly. "Do you want to tell Albus that or should I?" Rose just rolled her eyes because he had called her bluff. "Even if we started dating again, there would be no future for us until Albus supported our relationship. Do you understand that, Rose?"

"All I understand is that you're giving up," she snapped.

"Giving up?" he cried. "Giving up? Do you know what I've sacrificed for you? My best mate hates me even though he won't admit it. Every time my father sees me, he also sees you and remembers every single mistake he made while he was growing up. Don't you dare tell me I'm giving up when I've worked harder to be with you than I've ever worked for anything in my entire life! I'm not giving up—I'm being reasonable. I don't want to be in this situation but since I am, I've got to bloody deal with it."

"What are you saying, Scorpius?" Rose asked, stopping dead in the middle of the hallway. Scorpius rolled his eyes, but turned around to face her. "Because it sounds an awful lot like you're saying you don't want to be with me."

"That's not what I'm saying," he sighed.

"Then what the hell is it, then?" she yelled. Scorpius looked slightly taken aback, but took another step forward nonetheless.

"All I'm saying is that we need to give this some time. We need to follow Albus's rules. We need to be friends. Just friends, Rose, until this all blows over."

"You want to be just friends?" she asked. "You got it. I've been looking for an excuse to snog Owen again anyway. Good night, Scorpius." Without another word, she turned and walked back down the hallway towards her common room.

"Rose!" he cried after her, but she had no desire to turn around. "Rose, that's not what I meant! Rose!" Smirking slightly, she kept going and never looked back.

As she snaked through the corridors alone, she continued to get more and more angry. She was mad at Albus for causing all of this drama in the first place and she was even madder at Scorpius for just lying down and taking his ridiculous rules. Rose traversed the corridors long after her patrol had ended and when she finally got back to her dormitory, everyone else was already asleep. Their heavy breathing aggravated her, however, so she grabbed her school bag and headed down to the Common Room. Only when she was sitting down there alone did she remember that term hadn't even started yet—there wasn't any homework that she could even pretend to do at this point.

She let her head collapse onto the table and was near tears when she heard the portrait hole open. Hastily, she wiped her wet eyes before looking up to see who was coming in after curfew. To Rose's surprise, the last person she expected to see was standing there awkwardly, looking directly at her. Madeline Stewart smiled weakly before making her way over.

"What are you doing here?" Rose asked, not unkindly.

Madeline shifted uncomfortably before answering. "Albus and Scorpius have been fighting in Albus's room for about a half hour now. I just thought you might want to eavesdrop on them with me—it's no fun doing it alone."

Rose looked up at her curiously, but the offer was too intriguing to pass up. "What are we waiting for?" she asked, getting up without any further explanation.

Madeline and her left immediately and made their way to the Heads' Common Room. "I've never seen Scorpius fight this hard for a girl," Madeline said as they rushed through the hallways.

"That's funny," Rose hissed bitterly. "Because just a few hours ago, he was telling me there was no future for us."

"Can you blame him?" Madeline asked. Rose looked over at her in surprise. "Albus is scary when he's mad," she shrugged. "No guy in their right mind would see a future with a girl that had someone as manic as him protecting them."

It didn't take them long to get to the Heads' Common Room and as soon as Madeline opened the portrait hole, Rose could hear yelling. Madeline quickly ushered her into the Head Girl's dormitory and shut the door. The conversation from the next room was coming through the walls quite clearly and Rose strongly suspected that Madeline had charmed them to make overhearing the argument much easier.

"I can't just pretend like this didn't happen, Albus!" she heard Scorpius shout.

"I'm not asking you to! But for the sake of our friendship I would rather not talk about it anymore."

"I can't not talk about it either! Not talking about it is making me tell Rose things I'm going to regret—she's pissed off at me and it's because I'm trying to live my life to please you! So are you happy now? You're ruining my life!"

"Your problems with Rose are not centered around me."

"They are though!" Scorpius shouted and there was a long pause. "Things were going great between me and Rose. I've never been as happy in my entire life as I was when I was with her."

"Yeah, well we all know how quickly those feelings seem to disappear for you." There was a loud bang and a clatter in which Rose assumed Scorpius had hit something.

"This was different! How can I convince you it was different! You know me—you know that I would never purposefully do anything to hurt our friendship. Rose was not just a fling and I want you to give me permission to date her again."

"That's not going to happen—"

"I haven't slept in three days," Scorpius cried desperately. "I can barely eat. All I think about is her and it is killing me. How does Caitlyn not speaking to you feel?"

"Don't bring Caitlyn into this," Albus hissed.

"I'm just doing it to prove a point. It hurts, right? It feels like your life is crumbling around you? That's how it feels now that I can't be with Rose. I feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest."

"Are you sure it's not just your penis that's suffering?" Albus scoffed.

"Is that what this is about?" Scorpius asked, his voice suddenly growing calmer. "Sex? Because I didn't sleep with Rose."

Rose's cheeks flushed from the next room and she felt Madeline looking at her curiously, but she didn't turn around to face her withering stare. She turned her attention back to the boys and found that Albus was laughing maniacally.

"You expect me to believe that?"

Scorpius sighed deeply. "It's true. Believe me if you want. She's your cousin, Albus, and I'm not the heartless bastard you seem to think that I am."

There was a long pause before Albus answered. Both of the boys seemed to have calmed down by this point. "I just think that you didn't think this through. You're used to being able to have whichever girl you want and you didn't think before you took Rose. Just give it a rest and we can forget about this."

"No," Scorpius said suddenly. His voice didn't seem angry, only determined. "I want her back." He paused for a second more. "I think I love her, Albus." Rose's heart stopped in the next room as she replayed those words in her head.

Albus didn't respond for a long time. "You might think that now…"

"I know that," he corrected himself. "And I'm going to prove it to you. I don't how, but I'm going to get Rose back."

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please :)**


	17. The Road Not Taken

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_The Road Not Taken_

Rose could hardly wait for classes to start the next day so that she could see Scorpius in a locale that Albus would deem appropriate and apologize to him for her behavior the night before. She had jumped to irrational conclusions and her spying had convinced her that Scorpius wasn't giving up on their relationship just yet. Hadn't he even told Albus that he thought he was in love? Surely that would count for a little something in Albus's book.

After Scorpius's unexpected pronouncement of love the night before, Rose had quietly crept out of Madeline's room because it had seemed like the argument was winding down and she didn't want Albus and Scorpius to find out that she had been eavesdropping. It took her much longer than usual, however, to find her way back to her dormitory because her head was so full of thoughts about Scorpius that she kept taking wrong turns.

Love was never a word that she had related to Scorpius Malfoy—not necessarily because she didn't feel it but because she knew in her heart that that word was foreign to him. Rose was a pessimist and had learned long ago to not let herself hope for anything. Although she had never consciously made the decision to abandon all hope of Scorpius ever loving her, the thought that he would had never crossed her mind.

Once Rose finally found her way back to her room, she just lay on her bed for several hours basking in the glory of Scorpius's revelation and wondering exactly when she had fallen in love with him. Because she knew now what she had been denying for months. She _was_ in love with Scorpius Malfoy.

By the time she arrived in Herbology class the next day, there was no doubt in her mind that the entire school had been filled in on Scorpius and her secret relationship. Everywhere she went, whispers followed her and a few people even stopped her to voice their opinions on the matter. Although the majority seemed to feel that Albus was the one out of line, several girls stopped her to say that she deserved much better than Scorpius Malfoy.

Professor Longbottom's quiet greenhouses promised to provide her with some much needed peace. Surely people would be less likely to critique Rose's relationship when Scorpius was in the room with her. As soon as she stepped through the door, however, she realized that her much needed peace might have to be put on hold.

Albus and Scorpius were standing together talking about something Rose was sure wasn't related to any of their current problems, but the fact that they were still acting as if nothing was off was eclipsed by the fact that Caitlyn was standing as far away from Albus as possible. She was standing stiffly across the room with Dylan and Parker. Rose had sincerely hoped that Albus would have forced Caitlyn to forgive him by now.

She knew that she could not in good conscious spend class with Albus, especially since she was still mad at him herself, but she did want desperately to talk to Scorpius. Much to everyone's surprise, she approached the two boys.

Scorpius had his back to the greenhouse doors, but Albus watched her warily as she approached. Reluctantly, Albus gestured towards her with a nod and Scorpius looked over. Although he seemed surprised to see her in such good spirits, even he could not hide the smile on his face when he realized she was coming to talk to him. She immediately felt guilty for her meltdown the night before. This wasn't Scorpius's fault and she shouldn't have blamed him for the problems Albus was causing.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," she said sheepishly once she was close enough without even bothering with a greeting. The least amount of time she spent in Albus's presence, the happier she would be. "I was pissed off at Albus and I took it out on you." She looked moodily over at her cousin, but he refused to meet her gaze.

"I'm sorry too," Scorpius shrugged. "I just…" he looked over at Albus as if trying to think of a way to say what he wanted to in front of him. Albus pointedly turned his back to the pair. "I just don't want to lose you, Rose."

She couldn't help the smile that appeared on her face and an overwhelming desire to express her newfound love for him overcame her. She knew she couldn't in front of Albus, however, so she had to fish around in her mind for something else to say. "Friends?"

"Friends," Scorpius agreed. Rose daringly reached out and squeezed his hand lightly before making her way across the room to where Caitlyn was standing. Although Caitlyn was situated next to Parker and Dylan, she didn't seem very interested in their conversation about the varieties of dung bombs in the slightest. Rose took a place next to her.

"You okay?" she asked.

Caitlyn rolled her eyes. "Does it look like I'm okay?"

"Not in particularly," Rose answered.

"It takes effort to ignore your boyfriend. A lot of effort. A lot of effort that I don't have time for. Do you realize that we play Ravenclaw in less than month? And unless you decide to strip in the middle of the game, there is no way we can beat Owen!"

"Maybe you should just make up with Albus," Rose hinted. "That might make you a little less stressed. As much as I hate to admit it, this isn't his fault."

"He's being a bastard," she said bluntly.

Rose smiled slightly as the similarities between Albus and Caitlyn struck here: they were the two most stubborn people that she knew. "Be that as it may, I think it's up to me and him to work this out. You shouldn't put your relationship in jeopardy because of me and Scorpius. That's a bit ridiculous, don't you think?"

"Not really," she muttered as a sly smile arose on her face. "Actually, I'm thoroughly enjoying watching him grovel."

Rose laughed and Caitlyn couldn't help but snicker also. "Are you even mad at him?" Rose asked.

"Yes," Caitlyn shrugged. "But maybe not as mad as he thinks I am. Someone just needs to talk some sense into him. He's being completely irrational."

"You know that that someone could very well be you, right?"

Caitlyn looked at her thoughtfully for a second. "You really think he'd listen to me?"

"You're doing this whole relationship thing wrong is you haven't realized by now that you have complete control over that boy." Caitlyn seemed to like this idea and turned her attention to Albus across the room thoughtfully just as Professor Longbottom began class.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

Over the next few days, the whole dynamic that Rose had grown used to since Owen's party changed. Caitlyn tentatively forgave Albus and as they worked themselves back into each others' good graces, Caitlyn would casually drop hints that Rose was better off with Scorpius. And from what Caitlyn was telling her, Albus wasn't as completely opposed to the idea as it had originally seemed. Although Caitlyn and Albus's relationship was still a little stiff, they were spending as much time together as they had before Christmas break and Rose was at least happy that she wouldn't be blamed for their breakup.

On Rose's part, however, she refused to talk to Albus besides a few polite greetings at mealtimes. Her initial anger had died away, but she still wasn't ready to bring things back to the level of their old friendship. Being around Albus made her feel guilty and she did not want to feel guilty for dating Scorpius. She did not want to feel guilty for something that had made her happier than she could ever remember being.

As far as Scorpius was concerned, Rose had point blank refused to let Albus interfere with their friendship. He might have some authority to tell her who she could and couldn't date, but he had absolutely no right to tell her who she could be friends with. At first, she had suspected Scorpius would be opposed to her joining him at the Slytherin table for mealtimes or in the library to study, but he actually embraced the idea. Albus was either oblivious to the situation due to his problems with Caitlyn or refused to care, because they never heard a complaint out of him.

In a way, it was nice to be with Scorpius as just friends. But there were down sides of course. Like no snogging. Although snogging was not the basis of their relationship now like it had been before they were officially dating, Rose was surprised by how much she missed the physical contact. It made it seem like something substantial was missing in their relationship and she knew Scorpius felt it too even though he refused to voice his opinion. Saying it aloud would put too much temptation on them to do something about it and Scorpius was adamant about the fact that they weren't going to digress into another secret relationship. The next time they got together, everyone would be able to know what was going on.

Rose barely had time to worry about her relationship problems, however, due to the fact that Caitlyn had taken her Quidditch obsession to a very weird place that included nightly practices. Rose understood the basic premise of this tactic, but it was getting a bit ridiculous. If they weren't good enough to beat Ravenclaw, then running drills through dinner was hardly going to help them very much at this point.

After one particularly tough practice in which both Caitlyn and Bree had been reduced to tears (Caitlyn because of how horribly she thought they were doing and Bree because Caitlyn was forcing her to hit Bludgers at teammates, a practice that she did not support), the team somberly walked back to the locker rooms and took their showers in silence. Parker and Dylan looked tired beyond belief and Hugo and Bree both looked like they were ready to quit the team right then and there. Albus's face was unreadable as him and Rose waited on Caitlyn, but finally Rose was forced to accept that her best friend was trying to drown herself.

"We weren't _that_ bad," Rose groaned, frustrated. "Talk some sense into her, will you? I'm getting out of here."

Albus nodded. "Be careful walking onto the pitch. The Slytherins are practicing out there now."

"Hm," Rose mused. "I might stay and watch. You want to join me?" she asked to be polite.

"No, thank you," he said, although he looked like he would much rather come with her than have to face Caitlyn when she emerged from the shower. "But you know that just because you and Scorpius used to date or whatever, that doesn't mean he's going to take kindly to you spying on his practice."

"We've already played them," she pointed out. Plus, she rarely got the opportunity to see Scorpius play Quidditch and she was curious. Rose wasn't completely oblivious to the fact that one of the reasons she was so physically attracted to Owen was because he was a mastermind at Quidditch. She wanted to feel that sam intense attraction for Scorpius also.

The Slytherins were just warming up as Rose stepped into the bleachers. Although a few of them stared at her warily, they didn't seem too put out by her presence. She figured it was because she was probably looked at more as Scorpius's girlfriend than as a member of a rival team.

She watched Scorpius fly around for a few seconds before one of his teammates decided to point out that she was watching them. Scorpius followed their finger and when he laid eyes on Rose, she could almost swear she saw him smirk even though he was much too far away for her to know that for sure.

"What are you doing here?" he asked as he landed.

"_I'm_ watching you practice," she said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "What are _you_ doing? Shouldn't you be captaining your team or something?"

He shrugged. "They can captain themselves for a few minutes. Does Albus know you're here?"

"Do I have to ask his permission?" she asked moodily. Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "Yes, he knows," she relented.

"How hard is Caitlyn working you?" he asked casually.

"Too hard," she answered. "We're playing Owen in a week or two and she's taking this personally."

"You going to take off your shirt to score a goal again?" he smirked.

"Why do people keep mentioning that?" Rose groaned. "That was months ago!"

Scorpius shook his head, a huge smile still on his face. Then an idea seemed to occur to him. "He's not still into you, is he?"

"Are you serious?" Rose laughed. Scorpius didn't respond. "Okay, you are serious. How the hell am I supposed to know? We're not snogging each other in secret corridors though, if that's what you were wondering."

"Well, watch out for him, okay?" Scorpius asked, standing up as if this was the end to their conversation.

"And why should I 'watch out' for Owen Wood?" Rose scoffed.

"The bloke hates me!" Scorpius whined. "He has a personal vendetta against me!"

"You wonder why that is?" Rose mused. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact that you fucked his girlfriend."

"Fair enough," Scorpius muttered. "But he seems like an eye-for-an-eye type. And if he steals you from me, I'm not just going to lie down and die."

"Steals me from you?" Rose asked, finding humor in this entire conversation. "We're not dating, you know? So technically if I decided to shag Owen, he's not stealing anything."

"If he shags you," Scorpius threatened. "He's dead. You tell him that for me, will you?" He cocked his eyebrow in her direction once more before taking flight and re-joining his team in the air.

Rose watched with interest for almost a half hour. Although she was very well-aware of the fact that Scorpius was showing off simply to impress her, it was working. Rose walked off of the field smirking in a way that was much too reminiscent of her "ex"-boyfriend.

**.*.:.:.:.:.*.**

It was later in the week and Rose was in the library studying. Alone. Studying just wasn't as much fun when there wasn't someone sitting across from you who you could flirt with. Likewise, she wasn't getting much accomplished. It was amazing really how much she managed to bullshit in the presence of Scorpius Malfoy. Sure, the resulting grades might not be quite up to par, but at least she was getting something done. Sitting here alone was just…well, lonely.

What was bothering her even more was the fact that she had absolutely no clue where Scorpius or Caitlyn were. She hadn't seen either of them since dinner and the secret to their locale was even more distracting than her loneliness.

She was just preparing to leave when a shadow covered up her barely started Potions essay. She looked up to find Owen looking down on her smugly.

"I guess you're not in the mood to study with me?" he quipped, motioning towards her already half-packed bag.

Rose froze for the briefest of seconds contemplating whether to sit with Owen and finish her work, but then continued putting her things away. "If you want to do something else with me, that's fine. But I've had enough of the library for one night."

"I didn't have anything to study anyway," he smiled, grabbing her bag off of the floor and heading for the door. Rose picked up her Potions essay and rushed after him. "So what are you in the mood for?" he asked her as they exited the stifling library. "A party? A nice, romantic walk out on the grounds? A cozy little broom cupboard?"

"Tempting," Rose laughed. "But Scorpius warned me just the other day that if I so much as snog you, you'll be dead. And quite frankly, I don't think I can live without you."

"He has no authority to threaten me," Owen said, tensing up immediately. "He shagged my girlfriend. I have creative license on anything up to that. And I don't think it's really a secret that I have a thing for you, so why don't we just give this a try?" Rose looked at him in surprise, but he did not seem to be the least bit embarrassed. "You like me too," he smirked. "Don't pretend that you don't."

"I'm attracted to you," Rose corrected. "But I like Scorpius more."

"Well, you're broken up with Scorpius."

"Not for long," she muttered.

"But you _are_ broken up with him," he repeated.

"Technically," she admitted. He smirked and she rolled her eyes. Somehow it was just completely impossible to be mad at Owen.

"Then why can't we just...try this?"

Rose started laughing out loud. "Try what?"

"The two times we've kissed, I've felt something. It can't be possible that you didn't feel something too."

Rose sighed. "The last time you kissed me I was more worried that Scorpius was going to skin me alive."

"All the more reason to try again," he smirked, inching closer to her. He grabbed her gently by her arms and pressed her against the cold wall of the empty corridor.

"You're kidding, right?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "You think pressing me against a hard wall is going to convince me to kiss you?"

"I thought it might," he shrugged.

"I'm majorly into Scorpius," she said. "That's not going to change."

"Well I'm majorly into you and that's not going to change either."

"How did this happen?" Rose asked suddenly. She wasn't really aggravated; in fact, she found Owen's persistence kind of cute.

"How did what happen?" he asked.

"How did you end up falling for me? I thought we were just kidding around all of those years. Am I really just that bad at reading signs?"

"No," he laughed. "Maybe I've always had feelings for you and just didn't realize it, but that first night we kissed when I caught Danielle with Scorpius...it changed something. I never should have done it. Even if Scorpius did deserve to see you snog someone else."

"If it makes you feel any better, he's still jealous of you."

"Good," Owen smiled. "He should be." Rose rolled her eyes. "Just one kiss!" he begged.

"If I kiss you, will you leave me alone?" Rose asked.

"No promises," he smirked. She playfully pushed him off of her and began walking down the corridor. "I'm kidding!" he begged. "Come back! Okay, I promise if you kiss me, that will be that. You can make up your own mind and go running back to Malfoy. I just want you to know what you're missing out on."

Rose turned to him once more. "You can't tell Scorpius about this," she warned, taking several steps closer to him.

"That will be difficult," he mused. Rose hit him playfully. "I won't tell Scorpius." He continued to get closer to her and although at the back of Rose's mind she knew that she was probably going to feel guilty about this later, she was too excited to think straight.

"I'm just doing this so you will be thoroughly distracted when we play Ravenclaw this weekend," she breathed

"That plan just might work," he laughed. "Although if you shagged me, it would probably work better."

Rose rolled her eyes, but when she looked forward again she was mesmerized by Owen's gaze. He was looking at her in a way that startled her. It was the same look of passion and lust that she had grown accustomed to seeing in Scorpius's eyes and on Owen it just looked wrong. The pure desire that she saw there made her feel guilty that that look wasn't reflected in her own eyes and suddenly she knew that she needed this kiss. She could deny it all she wanted, but she needed this. She needed to erase all thoughts of other men from her mind if anything was ever going to work between her and Scorpius. And her feelings for Owen were, quite frankly, up in the air. As long as he was always there, caring about her, she didn't have to commit to anything.

Their lips met fiercely in such a way that Rose was left not knowing who had lunged forward first. All she knew was that his lips were warm against hers and they were working their magic in a way that she had never expected. It had been weeks since she had kissed anyone thanks to Albus and the feel of Owen's lips on hers was amazing.

Rose almost broke the kiss right then and there as that thought occurred to her. She definitely shouldn't have been enjoying that kiss as much as she was. She could feel Scorpius being erased from her mind for the briefest of instants and it scared her. She didn't want to lose him like that.

Owen finally pulled away and Rose just looked up at him, feeling as lost as she had ever felt. Upon seeing that look on her face, Owen smirked.

"I'm not such a bad kisser, am I?"

"This doesn't change anything, Owen," Rose said with as much intensity as she could muster. Owen's smile immediately disappeared.

"Are you seriously going to stand here and tell me that you felt _nothing_ just then?" He was raising his voice and Rose could sense that his patience with her was finally failing. She shook her head, trying to clear it. "Tell me you felt nothing!"

"It doesn't change anything," she repeated. "I love Scorpius."

"You deserve better than Scorpius. You know what it feels like to have him cheat on you. Why would you wait around for him to do it again?"

"He's changed!" Rose insisted, suddenly growing defensive. "Can't you see that? You sound like Albus!"

"Well maybe Albus has it right this time," Owen countered, no trace of his previously pleasant demeanor left on his face. Rose didn't know what else to say. "Just tell me one thing. Did I ever have a chance with you? If Scorpius was completely out of the picture—"

"Yes, Owen," Rose interrupted, her voice much louder than she had expected it to be. "If Scorpius was completely out of the picture—if Albus hadn't taken me to that Weird Sisters concert—I don't see how we wouldn't be together right now. And I'm sorry it's like this, but it is. I love Scorpius. And what I feel for you…it's just not the same. I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," he shrugged, but his anger seemed to have dissipated. Rose opened her mouth to try and comfort him but before she could say anything, Caitlyn ambled around the corner. She looked briefly surprised to see her brother and her best friend, but shrugged it off as she took in the somber looks on their faces.

"What—?" Caitlyn started to ask. "Never mind, I don't think I want to know. Rose, Madeline's having a party in the Heads' Common Room and you're coming with me."

"I don't want to go to a party," Rose sighed. "I'm not a party person."

"Well, neither am I and I don't particularly fancy spending the whole night alone with a moody Albus so come on! You can come too, Owen."

"I'll pass," he muttered. Caitlyn didn't wait for an explanation before pulling Rose down the corridor. Before she rounded the corner, however, she took one last look at Owen. His face was contorted into a look of anger and agony which was so out of sorts with his usual cheerful nature. In fact, Rose couldn't even remember a time when she had seen Owen upset. And here he was, in pain, and it was her fault.

"I don't like parties," Rose repeated as she lost sight of him, but she knew it was no use. When they entered the Heads' dorms, people were everywhere. Rose vaguely remembered thinking a few months ago that they wouldn't be able to hold a party in here because of its small size, but she had apparently underestimated Albus's talent for casting engorgement charms. There were nearly fifty people crammed into the room and it didn't seem crowded at all. That didn't change the fact, however, that Rose was not very fond of large groups of people.

"I'm leaving," she said as soon as the portrait hole was shut behind her.

"You sure about that?" Caitlyn smirked, physically turning Rose around so that she was looking at Scorpius who was sitting alone on the couch. She couldn't help but smile.

"Maybe I'll stay for a little while," she mused, smiling over at the boy sitting on the couch. Although she did feel slightly guilty about snogging Owen, she didn't regret that she had done it. It had shown her what she had needed to know—she would pick Scorpius over anyone.

"Yeah," Caitlyn agreed. "I'll distract Albus." With a wink, she was gone.

Rose approached Scorpius cautiously from behind and then seductively placed her hands over his eyes and whispered in his ear, "Guess who?"

"Please be Rose," he whined. "If not, then please go away." She uncovered his eyes and he leaned back to see her. "Knew it," he smirked. She walked around the couch and took a seat next to him. She purposefully sat as close as she could without being on top of him.

"I don't want to be here," she whined, placing her hand nonchalantly on Scorpius's knee. He smirked, but picked her hand up and moved it.

"Albus is right over there," he pointed out as Rose groaned in frustration.

She rolled her eyes. "Will you please stop doing everything my cousin wants you to? It's annoying?"

"Rose," he said patronizingly. "If you don't think I want to be with you, then you're crazy. But I know how this would end up. You put your hand on my knee; I put my arm around your shoulders. Soon, we're snogging. I can't control myself, so you're going to have to control yourself."

"But I don't want to," she grumbled. Scorpius just smirked. As the party continued to drag on, Rose couldn't help but lay her head on Scorpius's shoulder. He tried to shrug her off, but she refused to let him.

"I would be doing the exact same thing if it were Hugo sitting next to me, so bugger off." Scorpius laughed and just let her lay there.

"Okay, lovebirds, break it up." Rose opened her eyes to find Caitlyn standing in front of them with her hands on her hips.

"No," Rose muttered and closed her eyes again.

"Yes," Caitlyn countered, yanking her up. "We're playing Truth or Dare. Come on."

"I don't want to play Truth or Dare!" Rose groaned. "Isn't that like so third year?"

"No, it's like some of Madeline's idiot friends want to play and if you join I will gladly dare you to kiss Scorpius. So, come on."

"Sounds good to me," Rose smiled, making her way over to the small group of assembled students.

"Wait a second!" Scorpius cried, hurrying after the pair. "This isn't going to end well!" The girls ignored him as all three of them took a seat across the room where the game was already in play. Madeline forced them to take a sip of the Veritaserum that she had stolen for this purpose and the game continued.

As promised, when it was Caitlyn's turn she turned to Rose. "Rose, truth or dare?"

"Dare," Rose answered confidently. Scorpius groaned quietly from next to her and Albus tensed up from across the room.

"I dare you to snog Scorpius." The two girls smirked and whispers broke out amongst their little circle. Albus looked furious, but he was powerless to come between the rules of Truth or Dare.

Eagerly, Rose leaned over to Scorpius and although he was putting on a good show of not wanting to go through with kissing her, she could tell it was an act. He closed the distance between them and after almost three weeks of being separated, it was like the air she needed to breath. The kiss didn't last long. Scorpius seemed to be hyper-aware of the fact that Albus was watching and he broke away long before Rose was satiated.

"Your turn, Rose," Albus said after a few seconds in which everyone sat in silence. Rose threw a random dare in Dylan Stewart's direction and the game continued. She was still dwelling on that kiss when suddenly it was Albus's turn to dish out the question and Rose could see in his eyes that he was looking for revenge.

"Scorpius, truth or dare?" Scorpius looked warily between Rose and Albus, his face clearly saying that he did not want to get in the middle of their argument. He took a second to debate where Albus could do the most damage, but eventually settled for truth.

"How many girls in this room have you shagged?" Scorpius looked at him in surprise for several seconds, but then sighed and began to look around the room. Rose rolled her eyes at the fact that he didn't just know the answer to that, but had to check.

"Two," he finally answered, turning back to the group. "And neither of them were Rose," he added smugly. Albus looked slightly disappointed. Caitlyn also looked put off that Albus was trying to show her up. Everyone assembled was now well aware that the couple was on opposite sides of the whole Rose/Scorpius debacle.

"Scorpius, truth or dare," Caitlyn asked when it was her turn once more.

"Dare," he shrugged, getting fed up with the proceedings.

"You sure you don't want truth?" Caitlyn hinted.

"Fine. Truth. Whatever."

"Okay," she smiled. "What are your feelings for Rose?" It took Scorpius a minute to realize what she was trying to do, but then he smiled. "You deserve a fair shot," Caitlyn added. "Albus can't deny that what you say under the influence of Veritaserum is true."

Without pausing, Scorpius turned to Rose. "I love you," he said and jaws all around their circle dropped. "I love you so much. I can't promise you that me and you will last forever, because this is all new to me. But I can promise you that at this moment, all I want is to be with you forever. And yes, I know that this is undermined by the fact that we're not even dating but it's the truth. I love you, Rose."

"I love you too," Rose smiled. They sat there staring at each other and forgetting the rest of the world for several seconds. When Rose was finally able to tear her eyes away from Scorpius, Albus was no where to be seen.

**.*.**

**A/N: Review, please!**

**Also, I think this story is almost finished :(**


	18. Happily Ever After

**.*. For Entertainment Purposes Only .*.**

**.*.**

_Happily Ever After_

Rose was both saddened and infuriated by Albus. Was he seriously so opposed to seeing Scorpius and her together that he couldn't even stay in the same room with them? She was tired—so tired—of playing this game with him. As much as Albus tried to convince her that dating Scorpius was the end of the world, she didn't believe it any more. And unless what Caitlyn had been telling her were lies, Albus was starting to doubt it himself. Rose was determined to make him admit that he had been wrong.

The giggles and whispers had not yet died down from Scorpius and Rose's kiss when she stood up abruptly and began heading towards the portrait hole.

"Rose," Scorpius warned, jumping up after her. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to find him," she said calmly, turning to face the man she loved. Looking over his shoulder, she noticed that nearly everyone in the room was watching them but she no longer cared. She had gotten used to being the object of gossip since Christmas. Although it wasn't something she took pride in, she had become desensitized to it over the past few weeks.

"Why?" Scorpius asked desperately, keeping his voice low. "I'm sick of this. I'm sick of not being able to be with you and I'm sick of listening to Albus. Me and you have got to stop catering to his every need. I want you to be my girlfriend, Rose Weasley, and I don't give a damn what Albus has to say about it!"

Rose sighed impatiently and threw a quick glance at the portrait hole before turning back to Scorpius. "I choose you, Scorpius," she said. "In my heart, I chose you weeks ago. I love you and Albus is just going to have to deal with that. But right now, I need to find him." She turned around and tried to leave once more.

Scorpius was smirking as he grabbed her wrist and turned her back to him. "So you'll be my girlfriend?" he clarified. "For real this time?"

"I wasn't aware the last time was fake," she smirked. "But yes, I will. Now, can I _please_ go find my cousin?"

Scorpius's face fell. "He's going to be mad. Why don't we both just give him some space?"

"Because I can't give Albus _space_," Rose explained firmly. "I'll go mad." She turned one more towards the portrait hole and this time Scorpius wasn't dumb enough to stop her.

As soon as the portrait hole shut behind her, a welcome silence invited her out into the corridor. She half wanted to just collapse right there and forget about everything that was going on, but she knew that she couldn't. She had to find Albus.

The door was open to an empty classroom a few feet away and Rose peeked her head in. Albus was sitting on the Professor's desk, staring at the ceiling.

"I guess you're not hiding from me, then," she said, leaning against the door frame.

"What?" he asked curiously. He didn't seem angry, for which Rose was grateful.

"If you were avoiding me, you would have picked a better hiding spot," she pointed out.

"I wasn't hiding from you," he smiled slightly. "I was waiting for you."

She grinned and walked over to her cousin, taking a seat next to him on the desk. "I love Scorpius," she said simply. "And he loves me."

"I know," Albus sighed.

"He makes me happy, Al. Happier than I've ever been. And he treats me good. I know he's made mistakes, but so have I. So have you and Caitlyn! Everyone makes mistakes."

"I know," he repeated.

"And I'm not asking your permission this time. Scorpius _is_ my boyfriend. And if you could just accept that—Albus, that's all I want. Because I can't live without you in my life but right now, I don't think I can live without Scorpius either. And I know that if I made you choose between me and Caitlyn, you wouldn't be able to do it either."

"You're right about that," he smiled. "But the difference is that if you told me to stop seeing Caitlyn, I wouldn't listen to your shit." Rose glanced over at him in surprise. "I'm an ass, Rose," he smiled. "And I'm sorry."

"You're sorry?" she asked in disbelief.

"You're so naïve sometimes, do you know that? Do you how long it took for me to realize that Scorpius loved you? The moment I figured out that what was going on in Caitlyn's bedroom wasn't a one-night stand, I knew. You'd have to be blind to not see how much Scorpius has changed over the past few months. Hell, I even made jokes with him about who the girl was that was making him behave."

"Then why did you—"

"Why did I turn into an ass? Because I was hurt, Rose. Hurt and jealous. You and Scorpius lied to me. My two best friends were keeping the fact that they were dating a secret because they thought that I wouldn't like it. How the hell could you even assume that I wouldn't want you to be happy? Yeah, I might have been a little wary at first but I'm not your keeper, Rose. You're not stupid and you're not the kind of girl who would fall for Scorpius just because he's good-looking. And I know Scorpius well enough to know that he wouldn't put up with you unless he was really in love."

Rose hit him playfully on the shoulder and he smiled. "I was jealous that you two were sharing something that I couldn't be a part of and I felt like I was losing both of my best friends at the same time so I overreacted. I overreacted bad. And I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too," a voice said from the door and Rose and Albus both looked up to find Scorpius entering the room.

"How long have you been there?" Albus asked after several seconds.

"A while," Scorpius shrugged. "I thought you might attack Rose if she came after you so I followed her. I guess I was wrong."

Rose rolled her eyes, but Albus grinned mysteriously. "Apology accepted. But I'm still mad at you, you know."

"Excuse me?" Scorpius asked, taken aback.

"Albus!" Rose hissed.

"Caitlyn was going to have sex with me that night at Owen's party. Unsurprisingly, she has been 'not-in-the-mood' ever since. That's your fault. So the way I see it, you are forever in my debt."

Rose shook her head in disbelief but her reaction was ignored by the boys, who were both laughing.

"I really am sorry," Scorpius said after their laughter subsided. "I did things out of order and it's my fault."

"I'm sorry too," Albus said. As the boys embraced, Rose couldn't help but feel that her life was about to get much easier. She had her cousin and her boyfriend back and she couldn't think of anything else that she could possibly want in that moment.

**.:.:.:.:.:.:.**

After a whole year of preparing, the day of the Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw game dawned. Caitlyn, as expected, was so nervous that she couldn't even talk. Rose walked down to breakfast with her, but Caitlyn couldn't stay seated for longer than two minutes at a time. Once her two minutes were up, she would either begin pacing the Great Hall or run out of it all together to go check her playbook or the weather conditions.

"She's going to kill us all if we don't win this game," Parker muttered as he shoveled porridge into his mouth. Dylan nodded his agreement but his mouth was too full to respond. They obviously weren't nervous enough not to eat.

"If you think she's going to kill _you_," Albus groaned. "What about me? I think I'm going to be single if I don't catch that damn snitch."

"That is a dilemma," Dylan said after he swallowed his food. "But think about all of the sex you're going to be having if we do win the game."

Albus smirked shyly. "That I might be able to live with."

"Gross," Rose muttered and then turned back to her toast which she had barely taken a bite of. The three boys laughed at her disgust. She looked up as they were trying to regain their composure and saw that Owen was making his way towards her. She rolled her eyes in his direction, but he didn't slow down and didn't hesitate to take a seat across from her even though they were about to play each other for the Quidditch Cup.

"You're awfully brave coming over here," she noted, trying to ignore the fact that their last encounter hadn't ended on the best of terms.

"As much as I would love to sit here flirting with you," he said, "I actually came to wish Caitlyn good luck. Where is she?"

"No telling," Albus interrupted. "She keeps walking out."

"I guess I'll just have to wait then," he muttered. "So, Rosie, still single?"

"Not exactly," she replied.

"You're nothing if not persistent, mate," Albus chuckled.

"How about we make a bet?" he asked, never taking his eyes off of Rose. She pointedly refused to meet his gaze. "If Ravenclaw wins, you agree to go on a date with me."

"How about not," a voice said from behind Rose. She turned to find Scorpius standing above her. Without waiting for permission, he took a seat.

"Sorry, mate," Owen said, a sly smile appearing on his face. Rose immediately began worrying about what exactly that smile meant. He wouldn't dare mention the kiss to Scorpius, would he? Rose tossed him one pleading look, but he returned it with that same sly smile.

"Jealous much?" Albus asked Scorpius with a smirk.

Scorpius smiled. "Me and Owen don't exactly get along," he shrugged. "It probably has something to do with the fact that he's in love with my girlfriend."

"Of course it would have nothing to do with the fact that you slept with mine," Owen countered and Rose closed her eyes in frustration. This wasn't going to end well.

Scorpius was growing red with anger, but he managed to keep his mouth. "Let's just drop this," he muttered.

"Well your instincts don't completely suck," Owen smiled sardonically.

"Look," Scorpius said firmly. Everyone surrounding the pair had stopped chewing in order to listen to the boys' arguement. "You need to leave Rose alone. She's obviously not into you."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that," Owen said, leaning back comfortably and smiling at Rose.

Scorpius looked briefly at his girlfriend before turning back to Owen. "What's that supposed to mean?" he hissed.

Owen's eyes met Rose's once more before he responded and in that instant she knew that he was about to ruin everything. And he didn't even care that he was about to hurt her. "Nothing much," he shrugged. "Just that there was quite a large span of time when you and Rose were technically not together. As in _technically_ she could have been seeing other people."

"She wasn't," Scorpius answered much too quickly for anyone to believe that he had no doubts about what he was saying. He didn't even look down at Rose for conformation, but all along the table she could feel people's eyes on her and for the first time in weeks it made her uncomfortable. This was different than when people were staring at her for dating Scorpius. She was ashamed to be the center of these stares.

"You sure about that?" Owen asked, standing up from his seat as if nothing had gone amiss. "Good luck today, Rose," he grinned and then he was gone.

Rose's heart was hammering out of her chest as Scorpius finally looked down at her. She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. She knew that she had to tell Scorpius the truth, but she couldn't remember how to speak.

"We should probably head down to the pitch," Albus interrupted. Dylan and Parker readily agreed and began heading towards the doors. "Coming, Rose?"

Scorpius, seeming to sense her discomfort, sighed deeply. "It's okay," he said. "We'll talk about this later."

"Scorpius, it's not—"

"It's fine," he interrupted abruptly, startling Rose. Upon seeing her recoil, he groaned and leaned in to kiss her gently on the lips. "Just beat his sorry ass, okay? I'm not going to be able to stand it if he wins this match."

Rose nodded distractedly, wondering how she was ever going to be able to concentrate on the game when she was worried about whether Scorpius was going to break up with her or not. That may have even been Owen's plan…

Once Scorpius was no longer standing in front of her, she had no choice but to head down to the Quidditch pitch.

Caitlyn was already stressing in the locker room when Rose arrived. They dressed quickly and sat down so that she could spend some of their time going over plays that she felt they needed refreshing on. Rose wasn't paying much attention and soon enough, it was time to play Quidditch.

As Rose flew into the air, her head was full. Even though she was worrying about the game and whether Scorpius was mad, she was also aggravated beyond belief at Owen. Owen and she had always had an unspoken understanding that what happened between them would stay between them. He had ruined that. It was the first time Rose had ever seen him be truly vindictive and his wrath had been directed at her. Thank God she could use this game to vent her anger! Her thoughts about Scorpius would just have to wait.

Rose, Parker, and Hugo were flying together more perfectly than they had all year—much better than the Ravenclaw Chasers who had been on the same team for years. Even though Rose had only been playing for Gryffindor for a year, the three of them were a solid unit.

As the three of them neared the goal, Rose was holding the Quaffle and she was ready to face Owen. Using her anger to propel her, she launched the ball at the right hoop.

And Owen blocked it. He smirked at her as he threw the ball back into play and it took Rose a second too long to get back in the game. Owen was playing to win, just like Rose was. And even though she hadn't thought it was possible, his anger for her might be even stronger than her anger for him. He had more to lose in this match than she did.

From there, the game progressed dismally. Even though the Gryffindor Chasers ran Caitlyn's plays flawlessly, none of them could get the Quaffle through Owen's hoops. He really was just that good. Although Caitlyn tried to match his talent on her side of the pitch, it just didn't stack up. And once she let one goal in and become discouraged, more and more followed it until the score was up 150-0, Ravenclaw in the lead.

Rose was fuming as the whistle sounded for a time out. She landed on the pitch flanked by Hugo and Parker.

"He's too good," Parker said immediately. "Cate, he's been holding out on us. He's better than we thought."

"I've never seen him play like this," she agreed sadly. She didn't have the energy to be mad, but Rose could tell that she was upset. This was her last chance to get the Quidditch Cup and she was getting beat not only by the Ravenclaw team, but by her own brother.

"It's my fault," Rose sighed. "He's mad at me."

"He doesn't have superpowers!" Hugo insisted. "One of use should be able to get the quaffle past him! Then if Albus catches the snitch, we still win."

The team exchanged wary glances. "I can catch the snitch," Albus sighed. "But I don't think it's going to do us much good to wait until we score because that might not happen. I'm going to catch it the first time it flies onto the field because if I don't, we could be losing by a lot less than ten points. Ten points down and we still come in second for the Cup."

Although Caitlyn didn't seem happy with this assessment, she nodded. "Ok. Rose, Hugo, and Parker, we just need one goal. One. Dylan and Bree, if that quaffle gets near Owen's hoop, knock him out. It's legal. And Albus, just catch that damn snitch and end this!"

It wasn't much of a pep talk but it gave Rose something to think about. She had to score one goal. Just one. She just had to score one goal off of Owen Wood. She had done it before. She could do it again.

They had only been back on the pitch for a minute when the Seekers started moving. Albus had spotted the snitch. Rose was in possession of the quaffle and she knew that if she didn't score now, they would lose. As soon as she was in range of the goals, she let the quaffle fly.

As the quaffle was in the air, she locked eyes with Owen and in that instant she knew that he wasn't going to stop it. Not because he couldn't, but because he didn't want to. And sure enough, the quaffle soared right through his outstretched arms and into the hoop seconds before Albus caught the snitch.

Hugo and Parker immediately engulfed her in a hug but as Rose descended to the ground she didn't feel much like she had won. If anyone had won that game, it had been Owen.

As the crowd rushed onto the field, Rose pushed away from her teammates until she spotted Owen landing on the other side of the pitch. She rushed over so that she could get to him before his teammates.

"Why did you let me score?" she yelled, knowing that no one would be able to hear her over the roar of the crowd anyway. "Why did you let us win?"

"I didn't do it for you," he said, glancing over to where his sister was being lifted into the shoulders of the Gryffindor team. "I did it for her."

Whatever anger Rose felt drifted away. "You're a good brother."

"Yeah, but I'm a crappy friend," he sighed. "I'm sorry for what I did this morning, Rose. I know I shouldn't have but Scorpius makes me crazy. Every girl I've wanted this year, he's gotten. I just wanted him to know that I got you. Just that once."

"I guess it's better that he found out now rather than later," she shrugged.

"And if he breaks up with you, I'm not going to complain," Owen joked. Rose hit him hard on the shoulder and he just laughed as she walked away to join her team.

**.*.:.:.:.:.:.*.**

Although Rose tried to excuse herself from the rest of her team in order to go and find Scorpius, Albus refused to let her leave.

"He'll find you when he wants to talk," Albus insisted. "And I really don't think he's mad at you anyway."

Nevertheless, Scorpius wasn't in the Gryffindor Common Room for the after-game party although he had promised to be there. When Rose tried to voice her concerns to Caitlyn, Caitlyn just brushed it off and shoved a firewhiskey in her hand.

"He'll be here eventually," she shrugged. "Relax—have some fun!"

But Rose couldn't have fun. All she could think about was how mad and hurt Scorpius must be. And this time it was her causing the pain, not him. She knew what it felt like to see the person she loved with someone else and if Scorpius was feeling half of what she had felt, he was ready to kill her. Just the fact that he was ignoring her was enough to prove that.

"Hey," a voice suddenly whispered right into Rose's ear, causing her to jump and slosh firewhiskey out of her bottle onto the floor. She turned to find Scorpius standing there smugly, his hands resting casually in his pockets.

"Hey," Rose said, handing her drink to a third year that was wandering past. "Scorpius, listen. I'm so sorry. But this isn't what you think it is. We just kissed. Once. And I only did it because he promised he'd leave me alone if I did. And me and you weren't dating and—" Before she could finish her well-rehearsed speech, Scorpius kissed her firmly on the lips. He pulled away slowly several long seconds later.

"I don't care," he said. "Come with me." He grabbed Rose's hand and they exited the Common Room. As he made his way down the corridors, Rose could sense his excitement.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked.

"It's a secret," he smiled.

"So the Astronomy Tower then?" she laughed. He refused to answer but sure enough, he took her up to the Astronomy Tower.

"You're incredibly predictable, Scorpius Malfoy," she said as they stepped out into the cool night air.

"Am I really?" he smirked, locking the door behind them. "This way." He let Rose around the outside of the tower until a picnic blanket suddenly came into sight, complete with candles. Rose couldn't help but laugh.

"Well I definitely wasn't expecting that," she smiled.

"Don't give me too much credit," Scorpius said sheepishly as he helped Rose sit down on the blanket. "The house elves did most of it."

"Don't try to downplay this," she smiled. "This is the most romantic thing a guy has ever done for me."

"It looks like I'm learning to be a better boyfriend after all."

"It sure does," Rose smiled and leaned in to kiss him deeply.

"I love you, Rose," he sighed.

"I love you too," she smiled.

"It took us way too long to get here, have you realized that?" he asked as he poured her a drink.

"Yeah, I seem to remember that you had a girlfriend when we first got together."

"Madeline Stewart," he sighed. "Why did I break up with her again?" Rose tried to hit him, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him so that she was leaning against his chest.

"You make me happy," Rose said after a minute of comfortable silence. "I don't know why, but you do."

"And you make me crazy," he laughed. "But I'm happier than I've ever been."

"So, it must get easier from here, right?" Rose asked, leaning back to look at Scorpius. "We're through the hard parts?"

"I have a feeling there are going to be more hard parts. I make mistakes, Rose. You should know that by now."

"Well I'm not perfect either."

Scorpius shrugged. "I'm not going anywhere. Not as long as you'll have me."

"You may want to rethink that," she said a few seconds later as a thought occured to her.

"Why?" Scorpius smirked. Rose turned around in his lap so that they were just a breath away from each other.

"Because now we have to tell my father. And I'm not sure how he's going to feel about me dating a Malfoy."

Scorpius's characteristic smirk arose on his face and Rose found it simply irresistible. As they kissed on the top of the Astronomy Tower with the stars shining all around them, Rose felt like her life was just beginning. It was as if she had never truly lived until this moment and for the first time in her life, Rose wasn't dwelling on the past or anticipating the future. She was living in the present and it was incandescently magical.

**.*.**

**The End**

**.*.**

**A/N: I just want to thank all of the readers and reviewers for this story. I really think this has been my best story to date and all of you are to thank for that. I can't promise you that I will write a sequel, but I won't rule it out either.**

**But in order to truly thank you for all of your support, in your review for this chapter feel free to tell me which scene from this story that you want to read from the POV of another character. Since most of this story is written from Rose's POV there is a lot of background information that never got incorporated in. **

**It doesn't even have to be a particular scene. For example, I could write about how Caitlyn and Albus fell in love. Or what Scorpius was feeling that night at the concert. The most original, entertaining, or the most popular answers to this prompt will be posted as a poll on my profile in about a week so that you can vote for your favorites and I'll write one or two of those as a oneshot.**

**Thanks again so much!**

**And please review :)**

**Much love, **

**SarahBeth.**


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